Words

Y'all ever think about words?

Are there words you know the exact moment you learned what they meant and how to use them?

For example, I remember the exact moment I heard the word "fail" and what it meant in the context of a class. I was in the kitchen with my mom and maybe another sibling or two when my oldest brother came in and told my mom about a class he just got the grades for. He said he "failed" it. I had never heard that before and didn't know what it meant until then.

Another word I remember learning: finale. I learned the meaning of that word in the context of the 4th of July. The last set of fireworks was always the "grand finale" and I didn't know what that meant except in that context.

Or have you ever thought about how many words we have for certain things?

For example, how many words are there that mean hate?
hate, detest, abominate, abhor, loathe, etc. Now those all mean the same and you basically can use them interchangeably no matter what or who you are talking about.

What about love? How many words mean love?
admire, adulate, delight in, dote on, esteem, exalt, etc. BUT....you wouldn't interchange those depending on the person or thing you were talking about. They don't all really mean love to us. Think about it.

You don't love your dog the same way you love your ham and cheese sandwich. You don't love your child the same way you love your favorite book...and yet we use the word love for those things. You might say "I delight in this sunshine" (you would sound weird but it would make sense to people) but you wouldn't say "I delight in you"...it just isn't the same as "I love you".

So fascinating to me....and to think I hated Linguistic Anthropology...