Defying Dictionaries

Locke writes, “Who of all these has established the right signification of the word, gold? Or who shall be the judge to determine?” (pg 821, bottom of 1^st column). Up to this point, Locke discusses the fickle nature of words—that is, we can’t convey our exact ideas to other people because we all have different perceptions of the world, but we all use the same words to describe that world. And therefore, those words don’t mean exactly the same thing. Locke then questions (as we see in the quote) whether anyone really has the “right” definition for a word. Who’s to say my general idea of “dog” (some sort of long-haired, medium-sized, and outdoor-living canine) is better than Sally’s general idea of “dog” (some sort of short-haired, small-sized, and indoor-living canine)?

And yet, some people seemingly think that this dilemma of word obscurity could somehow be solved by educating people about the “proper” meaning of words. Enter stage left: the dictionary. I certainly think that dictionaries can provide a good, starting framework when discussing the meaning of words, but we shouldn’t take them as the final word on a definition. Besides, many dictionaries exist, and they don’t all have the exact same definitions of words.

I think that Locke’s piece might have even changed our concept of the word, “definition.” Basically, one major take-away point from this reading is that meanings and definitions are not fixed—which opens up a vast opportunity for us to redefine words and to use words to change people’s perspectives. Have you ever thought, “Oh, I was going to use this word in a particular way, but according to the dictionary, I can’t”? Well, now you can! Of course, according to Locke, one of the abuses of words occurs when “words are diverted from their common use” (pg 826, subheading in first column). However, that is where rhetoric comes in; we must write about the definitions of certain words in order to convey to and persuade people of our changed ideas about the word. Just think of the word “time.” How you define “time” probably reflects your larger worldview, to a certain extent. For example: check out Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman or the video below: 

On the surface, “time” might appear to be a simple word, but it really is not. If we took the time (no pun intended) to explore our vocabulary, we would probably find words that, similarly, can be paradigm-shifters.