Key Takeaways
A quiet word for a heavy feeling
On a small, creased scrap of paper, three short lines of blue ink stack into a single Dutch word that means “sad” or “sorrowful.” The scene is modest, but the choice of word is not.
Doodles that suggest a restless hand
Around that word sit dense patches of ink and crossed-out marks. They are the kind of aimless drawings people often make while thinking or worrying, turning the paper into a map of passing moods.
A Dutch term with emotional depth
The word itself, “verdrietig,” appears in Dutch dictionaries as an adjective for sadness, grief, or unhappiness. It often carries a more personal tone than a neutral term for “unpleasant,” hinting at hurt that feels close to the heart.
Research linking handwriting and emotion
Studies from universities in Israel and elsewhere have examined how features such as letter size, spacing and writing pressure shift with mood, suggesting that the way people write can echo how they feel.
Writing as a tool for relief
Psychologists and medical researchers have also explored “expressive writing,” where people put their deepest thoughts and feelings into words. Evidence from major institutions links this kind of writing to lower stress and better emotional health.
Story & Details
Blue letters on worn paper
Imagine a scrap of paper that has clearly lived in a pocket or at the bottom of a bag. The folds run both horizontally and vertically, dividing the surface into quarters. Along one inner corner, near the edge, three very short lines of handwriting descend in a neat column:
“VER”
“DRI”
“TEG”
The letters are written in blue ballpoint ink, slightly leaning to the right. They are firm enough to leave shallow impressions in the paper. At first glance they could be separate fragments, but read together they join into a single word.
What “verdrietig” means
That word, “verdrietig,” belongs to everyday Dutch. Major dictionaries gloss it as “sad,” “sorrowful,” “unhappy,” or “grieved,” sometimes extending into “depressed” or “miserable” depending on context. It describes more than a passing annoyance. Speakers often use it when a relationship ends, when someone is bereaved, or when life delivers a blow that lingers.
Some language guides compare “verdrietig” with near-synonyms such as “trieste” or “treurig,” noting that the differences are subtle and often felt rather than explained. “Verdrietig” tends to sound a little more intimate, tied to the speaker’s own inner state rather than to a cold description of circumstances. It is a small word that assumes there is something to mourn, even if no details are given.
Ink blocks, crossings-out, and what they hint at
Elsewhere on the same piece of paper, the writer has filled in a solid square of blue ink, colouring over and over the same spot until it becomes almost opaque. Nearby, other scribbles blur into one another: short strokes, loops, areas that look as if a previous line has been worked over until it nearly vanishes.
Psychologists and handwriting researchers have suggested that such features can carry emotional signals. Work conducted at the University of Haifa, for example, has used digitised writing surfaces to capture tiny variations in pressure, spacing, speed and letter height as people write under different mood conditions. In those experiments, people in negative moods tended to produce narrower letters and faster strokes, while those in more positive states showed different patterns.
Other studies, including collaborations between occupational-therapy departments and computer scientists, have used advanced models to classify handwriting and drawing samples by emotional category. These projects do not claim to read minds, but they do indicate that the mechanics of writing change as feelings shift, even when the words themselves stay neutral.
Seen through that lens, the shaded square and the repeated crossings-out become more than idle decoration. They mark time. They show that whoever wrote the word did not simply jot it down and move on, but stayed with pen in hand, letting ink build up while thoughts circled.
From a single word to the wider science of writing
The blue column ending in “TEG” is just one person’s choice of expression, yet it sits in a much larger story about how writing interacts with emotion.
For decades, social psychologist James W. Pennebaker, born on 2 March 1950 and now 75 years old, has studied what happens when people write about difficult experiences. His research on “expressive writing” suggests that setting down honest, often painful feelings can lead to measurable benefits: lower stress markers, improved immune responses, and better performance in demanding situations. Medical outlets associated with leading universities have echoed these findings, explaining how writing about trauma or worry can help people process events and regain a sense of control.
More recent work in cognitive neuroscience adds another layer. Brain-imaging studies comparing handwriting with typing indicate that writing by hand activates widespread networks related not only to movement and language but also to memory and emotion. When people form letters themselves, rather than tapping keys, they appear to engage deeper processing, which may be one reason handwritten notes and personal pages often feel more emotionally charged.
Alongside this laboratory work, popular science articles and public-health pieces have begun to encourage everyday journaling as a low-cost, accessible way to manage mood. They describe simple practices: set aside a few minutes, write freely about what matters most today, and do not worry about style. The advice is not to dwell endlessly on pain, but to give it honest shape.
A line of ink as quiet testimony
Against that background, the stacked blue syllables take on a quiet weight. They do not tell us who wrote them, or why. They do not explain what loss or disappointment might have prompted the choice of word. What they do offer is a trace of someone who decided that the feeling deserved a name, and that the name should be written down.
The surrounding doodles and shaded shapes deepen that sense. They suggest pause and repetition, the rhythm of a hand that keeps moving even when there is nothing more to say. In the light of handwriting research and expressive-writing studies, that small scene becomes a compact illustration of a larger truth: putting emotions into words, even in a single adjective, can be both an admission and a form of care.
Conclusions
The weight of a compact word
A single Dutch adjective, broken across three short lines of blue ink, captures a feeling that many people recognise but often struggle to show. “Verdrietig” is brief, yet it points directly at sorrow and personal hurt. Written down, it becomes more than vocabulary; it becomes a record.
Writing as reflection, not diagnosis
Modern studies of handwriting and expressive writing do not turn scraps of text into medical tests, and they are careful about what they claim to see. Still, they converge on an appealing idea: how people write can reflect how they feel, and choosing to write about emotion can help ease its weight.
A small scene, a larger reminder
The creased paper, the dense ink, the carefully placed word all point in the same direction. They suggest that when sadness presses in, taking up a pen and naming it on the page can be a gentle, practical act. It does not erase the feeling, but it gives it shape, and sometimes that is the first step toward carrying it more lightly.
Sources
Cambridge Dictionary – Dutch–English entry for “verdrietig,” explaining its use as an adjective for sorrow and sadness.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/dutch-english/verdrietig
WordReference – Dutch–English dictionary entry for “verdrietig,” listing translations such as “sad,” “grieved,” and “depressed.”
https://www.wordreference.com/nlen/verdrietig
LearnDutch.org – vocabulary lesson on moods and emotions in Dutch, including the entry “verdrietig – sad.”
https://www.learndutch.org/lessons/moods-and-emotions-in-dutch/
Newswise – report from the University of Haifa on a computerized system that detects mood changes through handwriting features such as pressure and spacing.
https://www.newswise.com/articles/new-study-at-the-university-of-haifa-our-handwriting-reveals-our-mood
Frontiers in Psychology – open-access article comparing handwriting and typewriting, discussing the broader brain networks involved in writing by hand.
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1219945/full
Harvard Health Publishing – article on how writing about emotions may ease stress and trauma, summarising evidence for expressive writing as a health-supporting practice.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/writing-about-emotions-may-ease-stress-and-trauma
Wikipedia – biography of James W. Pennebaker, providing verified information about his date of birth, academic role and research focus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_W._Pennebaker
American Psychological Association – short video in which James Pennebaker explains how expressive writing can support mental health.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsTzXB8M8fg
Appendix
Dutch emotion vocabulary
A cluster of Dutch words used to describe feelings such as sadness, anger, fear and joy. These terms often carry fine shades of meaning that help speakers express not only what they feel but how personally it touches them.
Expressive writing
A structured yet open style of personal writing in which people describe their deepest thoughts and feelings about significant events. Researchers have linked it to benefits such as reduced stress, improved mood and, in some studies, better physical health.
Handwriting-based emotion research
An area of study that examines how features of handwriting and drawing—like speed, pressure, spacing and letter shape—change with mood. Using digitised pens and advanced analysis, these projects explore whether emotional states leave measurable traces in written strokes.
Mood
A relatively enduring emotional backdrop that colours how people experience the world. Unlike brief flashes of feeling, mood can influence behaviour, thought patterns and even physical actions such as the way someone writes or draws.
Verdrietig
A common Dutch adjective describing a state of sadness, grief or deep unhappiness. It is often used when a person feels emotionally hurt or is dealing with loss, giving a direct yet gentle name to a difficult inner experience.
My Diary - Leonardo Cardillo 