12.06.2005
What's in a word?
Words can mean so much, or so little. I was talking with my friend Wil last night about words. He said that it doesn’t really matter which word you use; what matters is what your meaning behind the word. While I partially agree with that, I think that is a dangerous way to conversate because word meanings are a bit subjective these days. When I say the word “bastard” or “damn”, does something just rise up within you and feel uncomfortable? I know for some of you it won’t, because you’ve learned that a word is what you make it, but even for myself, something inside of me is still like, “Are you sure you should say that?” I’m not here to say that we should all go around spouting off cuss words and various other questionable words in any context, but I’m just frustrated that people will take words that you say and immediately define them in their own context without asking you what you meant by them. Sometimes it is clear what people mean when they use these words (I don’t think anyone misinterprets the meaning of “asshole”), but other times, it is not so clear and clarification should be made before jumping to conclusions. Anyways, if I ever say anything you guys don’t understand, please ask me, because I’m probably just trying to get a point across with a strong word.
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7 comments:
Ah… words… Yes, I’d have to agree with your friend, Wil. Words are simply an attempt fro us to try to convey an idea; the word itself holds no value—only the meaning behind it. The meaning behind the word could be anything depending on who is receiving it, thus, relativeizing words. It is the relative interpretation of words that draws me to poetry. However, the very reason that we use words is to systematize certain ideas into sound so that they can be communicated. Therefore, if words ever became completely subjective then they would lose all meaning and cease to be a word. So, for me at least, the idea of word use comes down to a matter of audience; in an attempt to communicate an idea use the best word for the receiver of the idea. This does leave us the freedom to use whatever word is best for the situation, and I heartily agree that many situations call for expletives—excepting when it would detract from Christ. Strong language is not inherently wrong in any way. Fifty years ago the word “dang” had a stronger connotation than “damn” does now. Words shift and change. In his epistles Paul used several coarse words to emphasize his points (we just aren’t willing to accurately translate them ;-)). Anyway, I guess all that I’m using all these words to say is, “Hell yeah!”
gasp!
BTW, what is meant by the word "smenita"?
well then, I can answer that question for my self. As beautiful a word as I'm sure we all agree "smenita" is, it means absolutely nothing. I thought possibly that it meant "little sme" or something of the sort. Apparently not. I used it to type the characters exactly as I see them in the picture, but absolutely nothing happened.
As it turns out, "sglighe" holds the key to getting your comment published on traveling hobo musician.
I hope we've all learned a lesson, in itself, the beauty of a word is worthless. Case in point, "smenita". The ugliness of a word means nothing, case in point, "sglighe", which holds the key to making your thoughts known.
However, i would like to draw our attention to the fact that words do come and go, and that meaning can be assigned to heretofore meaningless sounds and they can come to mean to a great deal of people. "Frendle" for example. I hereby designate the word "smenita" to mean little sme. Sme will heretofor designate an upturned corner of the mouth, as in a smirk. A "little smirk" or smenita shall refer to smirk of the friendly or benign nature.
and we shall always remember that it was generated randomly by the blogger comment protector.
this comment brought to you by the word,afblqjkq.
You have a point, but I do think that words such as euphemisms exist for a reason. Some words are just prettier than others.
Glod troder! You're right. Reading your comments brought a smenita to my face.
Of course words such as "euphemisms" exist for a reason. This one in particular means, a word that is used to refer to something other than it's surface meaning.
I don't think that "euphemism" is a euphemism.
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