Chapter 3

This chapter is very thought provoking because it raises the idea that a word can mean whatever you want it to mean. However, in order to communicate with a society, a word has to mean the same thing or be used in the same context so that everyone can understand what each other is saying. This is already complicated in the English language because there are so many words that are the same but have different definitions or meanings. For example, the word ate can be used as the past tense of the verb eat, but it sounds the exact same as the number eight. Another example is the word read. Read can be used as a present tense or past tense form (whichever is in the correct format in the sentence). When looking at a dictionary, there are various words that have several meanings. Dictionaries are constantly updated every year because new words or meanings are formed. Some definitions have more important meanings than others. Two words that have changed meaning throughout history are wicked and tweet. Wicked used to mean that something was very cruel and unjust. Now it means the complete opposite (cool or exciting). Tweet used to be a type of onomatopoeia for a sound that a bird would make. Now it is a verb used for updating your status on the social networking website Twitter. A recent word that has become very popular is a grenade. This word was used on the show Jersey Shore to describe a very ugly person. Over a few weeks, this word has become overly used and nationally known. Another really popular word is creeper. This word is used a lot to describe someone who is really weird and likes to stare at people or stalk people. The meanings of words are always going to be changing. Words that used to be popular such as "groovy" and "far out" are not used anymore and even though they were slang, they were probably written in a dictionary at one time. This just goes to show that society is always communicating to keep the culture alive.