Prefixes: The Root of All Evil

It's kind of funny...don't you think?

The power that words have. You ask someone "what's the most beautiful word in the english language" and you can't an answer that has deeper meaning that just the random collection of letters and sounds. You ask the opposite question, and you'll get the same result.

But it's all words are, isn't it? When you break it down to the bare bones of what we call language, words are nothing but a representation of what we're saying. We assign sounds, we assign syllables, we assign meaning; words are symbols for what we want to say. Haley commented on the first question and brought up a very interesting point--that people who don't know our language find beauty in words we would find repulsive. "Diaherra" It almost sounds like an Opera. Any word in french is a pretty word, "poubelle" "devoirs" "maird" ("trash", "homework", "shit", respectively). Personal opinions of opera music or the french culture aside, these words do sound very nice, they're sort of fun to say. Yet if you asked anyone in their native tongue what they thought of these words they would say that they are ugly.

So what makes a word ugly? After all words are just symbols and symbols have no more power than what we assign them; "Cross" what did you just think of? If it was anything close to religious than you see what I'm saying. I remember vividly accidently saying the word "nigger" in front of my mother when I was younger. Her reaction quickly led me to believe that it was never okay to say that word. Yet if you examine the current hip hop culture, one of the primary objectives is to reclaim the word and desensitize it, to strip it of it's meaning. Is this a wrong thing to do?

I love words, I don't think theyre is anything more powerful or beautiful or tumultous as a word. I believe that, when used well, words pack a force that nothing can stop. Words can topple governments, words can make a fortune, words can define a relationship. But the only reason any of this is true is because we let it be true. I am a writer, and I believe in the power of words. I believe that words are like any other tool--use it well and you can change the world.

So what do words mean to you?