At a meteorological level, calm implies that the wind blows less than 1 kilometer per hour.
The Greek word kaûma , which can be translated as "embarrassment" , came to Latin as cauma . In Spanish it led to calm : a state of stillness , serenity, calm or repose .
The concept is usually used in meteorology when the wind blows at a speed of less than 1 kilometer per hour . Calm, therefore, appears when no wind is recorded in the atmosphere . For example: "The wind has been calm for two days," "If the weather remains calm, tomorrow we will go sailing."
By extension, we talk about calm when someone or something is at peace , without any surprises: "Don't worry, boss: everything is calm in the office" , "We're going to wait for the results of the election calmly" , " "I don't know how I managed to stay calm in such a difficult situation."
Calmness as a quality or condition
Sometimes calm is a condition or quality that is asked of a person. Suppose a man enters the customer service office of a telephone company shouting, furious because the service does not work and because they also applied a 25% increase to his monthly subscription. Seeing the subject's nervous state, a company employee asks him to "calm down" : he asks him to stop shouting and invites him to sit down to talk and thus analyze how his problem can be resolved.
Given the diversity that we can see in any group of people, calm is not a quality that is found to the same degree in all human beings, but rather each one can experience it differently. In everyday speech, we usually say that someone is "calm" if their character does not lead them to get angry easily, if they speak softly and slowly; In this case, we can say that this is an individual who experiences calm frequently.
On the other hand, "nervous" people are those who can never completely relax , who seem to be in a state of constant activity, whether physical or mental. This way of being can negatively affect your environment, since the absence of calm is something that not many appreciate; However, it may be absolutely normal for the subject to always be in motion.
When someone feels at peace, they are said to be calm.
Difficulties in “measuring” it in people
This leads us to think that calmness in a person's character is not a concept that can be measured with the same ease as when analyzing the wind, since each person interprets it in their own way. When we say to someone "don't get upset" and they respond "I'm not upset," even though from our point of view they are, we perhaps notice the difference with which each person understands emotions.
In any case, there is a convention that most people can understand regarding the concept of calm, and it is usually represented with various symbols or symbolic scenes, such as a sunset by the sea, a bench in a square with abundant nature. and without hustle and bustle, a dinner under the light of the stars... In general, living beings appreciate calm, since it is the opposite sensation to fear , to the perception of danger.
Calm as detention
Calm, on the other hand, can be the interruption, stopping or stopping of something, a phenomenon that generally has a negative connotation for a group of people, whether it is a sector of industry or society in general: «The policies of the government caused a lull in investments .
In this sense we can relate the term calm to musical silence , which consists of a momentary interruption of the melody.