I'll admit it: I've been an A.W.A.D. fan ever since my father signed me up for the daily e-mails over 10 years ago, and I often enjoy the quotations as much as the definitions. On December 2, however, the quotation was a definition that should have made any dictionary fan cringe:
Democracy, to me, is liberty plus economic security. - Maury Maverick, attorney and congressman (1895-1954)
Huh? As valuable as liberty and economic security may be, what on earth do they have to do with defining democracy? If we are going to re-define words willy-nilly, language has no meaning. It's the Humpty-Dumpty Effect."I don't know what you mean by 'glory'," Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "Of course you don't—till I tell you. I meant 'there's a nice knock-down argument for you!'"
"But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knock-down argument'," Alice objected.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."
On the other hand, the A.W.A.D. of November 28 was pure delight.
forwhy
PRONUNCIATION:(for-HWY)
MEANING:adverb: Why.
conjunction: Because.
ETYMOLOGY:From for + why.
USAGE:"She is the weeping welkin, I the earth:
Then must my sea be moved with her sighs;
Then must my earth with her continual tears
Become a deluge, overflow'd and drown'd;
Forwhy my bowels cannot hide her woes."
William Shakespeare; Titus Andronicus; c. 1590.
Not only does the Usage example contain "welkin," but "forwhy" itself I find delightful, because for several days thereafter my head rang with the hymn, All People That on Earth Do Dwell. The line "For why? the Lord our God is good," which seems to be the most common interpretation, is a little odd, but it makes perfect sense in context this way:
O enter then His gates with praise;
Approach with joy His courts unto;
Praise, laud, and bless His Name always,
For it is seemly so to do.
His mercy is for ever sure;
His truth at all times firmly stood,
And shall from age to age endure.
Yet, yet, we do have to take the time to figure out what people mean by certain words. Stephan and I got in trouble of the word "reformed" the other day. We didn't exactly define it willy-nilly, but because others have taken over the pure meaning of the word, it can be difficult. I suppose the same problem can be said of "orthodoxy." Always lend a generous ear and please, never assume the worst of what you think someone said.
Indeed. C. S. Lewis had something to say about that difficulty. In his day—in start contrast to ours— the word "Christian" was being used as an word with positive connotations; to call a man "Christian" was to speak highly of his morals, his generosity, his kindness. Thus the word had lost its meaning, and you could not make a factual statement about his religion—if he was, say, an atheist—without impugning his character. He compared it with what happened to the word "gentleman," which originally had a particular meaning about a man's birth and class, but was muddled by being used to describe behavior. To say that a man who crafts shoes for a living is not a gentleman used to be a simple statement of fact, not an insult.
Times of transition in meaning are hard. "Nice" used to be offensive, meaning foolish or wanton.
I remember my father telling me that this is why legal documents are so long and seem so convoluted to us. Lawyers know, and use, the precise meanings of and distinctions among words whose definitions we have muddled.
