The Meaning of Words

All words have meaning. A feeling, an expression, a thought, an idea, or just something; they all have a word or words that represent it as such. Regardless of whether or not words may have synonyms, each word in itself has its own unique meaning. Think about it; why would there be two words to represent the exact thing? They may have similar meanings, but never the same. That said, many of us misuse words and this causes a problem, because when we use words out of context we take away from the meaning of that word.

A lot of the mix up happens when we’re trying to express something abstract like feelings because it’s not as easy as saying “this is a book” and knowing that that is what it is. With feelings, everything becomes a little more complex; however there are still words to represent each feeling or emotion. Let’s take a look at the concept of ‘love’.

We all probably have/have had feelings for someone at some point in time and it’s times like these that when we want to tell the person how we feel that we start throwing words around. We tell the girl/guy that we just met how we like them when really and truly we are just attracted to them. Then when we do get to know them and now like them, we tell them how much we love them. You see how the misuse of these words causes problems? Because when we use a word to mean something it is not, when we get to what that word means we have to find another word because it feels wrong to use the same word when we know the feeling is different. So question; what happens when you love that person? What do you tell them then? Well this is where the phrase “I love you so much” is used. All you can do now is create different degrees of love. Alternatively, which is totally nonsensical, some of you would say “I love you more than words can even explain”. The thing is- Words CAN explain! That’s why words have meanings.

So, if we use words correctly and in context, it would save us from having to coin silly phrases to express what one word was meant to represent.

Say what you mean.