What’s in a Word?
I’m not ashamed to admit that I am a complete and total word nerd. I just love language! I love learning new languages, and I love learning about the way culture is reflected in language. I love learning about how complex communication systems can be, and how we create shared meaning from those systems. I love it all.
My favourite branch of language study (within English) is called etymology. I will never forget being at a friend’s 18th birthday party, having a passionate argument with someone I’d never met before, over whether the ‘com’ in compassion and the ‘con’ in concierge came from the same root word. While everyone else was dancing and drinking, we were battling it out in the corner, politely hurling Latin roots and conjugations through the air. This was before phones were smart, so we weren’t able to settle the argument on the spot, and he left the party and forgot all about it. That is, until I got home later that night, looked it up, and triumphantly messaged him to prove that I was, in fact, correct. (In case you’re curious, they are variants of each other meaning “with” or “together.” Ha!)
Etymology is the study of the history of words. It takes you beyond the face value of the way we use a word today and fleshes it out with history, applications and associations that often go back centuries, offering so much more richness of meaning. For example, the word ‘etymology’ itself can be broken down into two parts derived from Greek. The first half comes from the word ‘etumon’ meaning “the true sense.” When you add ‘ology’ meaning “the study of” a particular subject, we find that etymology is not just about history, but about “studying the true sense” of a word. Cool, right?
Every now and again, I’ll find a word playing on my mind, and I won’t get peace until I’ve decoded the word. Recently I found the word ‘encourage’ looping its way around my brain. I had a hunch about this one (which turned out to be correct!), and I feel like it is possibly the best etymology discovery I’ve ever made, because it adds so much depth and meaning to an often overused word.
The Oxford Dictionary definition of encourage is “to give somebody courage, support or hope.” The ensuing examples include clapping, cheering, offering words of encouragement, or bolstering their confidence. These are lovely, but the original meaning is so much better.
(I feel obliged at this point to provide fair warning: this is where I’m going to get really nerdy, but trust me when I say it will be worth the ride. Are you ready? Let’s do this!)
First, we #breakitdownnow and pull the word apart: en + courage. ‘Courage’ is actually a word on its own, which means it needs to be broken down even further. Courage is made of cour + age. We’re going to deal with the tops and tails first, and then focus on the core word.
En-: This handy little prefix carries a lot of power. While it is a variation of the sounds that give us the word ‘in,’ the presence of the letter ‘e’ indicates causation. Therefore it means “to cause to be” or “to cause to have” when attached to a stem word. Think of words like ‘enrich’ (to cause to be rich), ‘enclose’ (to cause to be closed in), and ‘ensnare’ (to cause to be trapped).
-age: this suffix can seem kind of boring, but is actually very versatile. It means “in the state of, function of, result of or collection of.” So words like ‘usage’ (the function of use), ‘wreckage’ (in a state of being wrecked) and ‘storage’ (the function of being stored or used for storing things).
Ok, back to the ‘cour’ part of encourage. This is the word base, which means we’re getting to the good stuff. Courage is often used interchangeably with ‘bravery,’ which is about doing things in spite of how difficult or scary they may seem. While courage often involves a lot of bravery, what courage literally translates to is “a strength of heart.” ‘Cour’ has Latin roots which are expressed in the French word ‘coeur’ and the Spanish word ‘corazon,’ both meaning “heart.” So courage is the state of heartiness, of being or feeling strong-hearted.
And, therefore, to ‘en + cour + age’ is “to cause to be in a state of strong heart.” (I told you it was so much better than cheering and clapping!)
When you encourage someone, you are offering them more than kind words or a pat on the back. You are sharing a piece of your heart, to strengthen their heart.
When you encourage your friend to keep working at setting boundaries with her difficult family, you are bolstering her heart with strength from your own.
When you encourage your child’s teachers and demonstrate your appreciation for the work they do, you are strengthening the hearts that they pour out from every day.
When you encourage your partner to keep being respectful to his irritating co-worker, you are causing his weary heart to be strengthened so that he can hold his head high.
And when you receive encouragement without making a self-deprecating comment or playing it down, you are accepting some of that person’s heart into your own. In all their precious, generous vulnerability, you are accepting them.
Giving and receiving encouragement is not just something that we do to be polite, or because it is the right thing to do. We do it because it unites us, it sustains us, it binds us together through the sharing of our heart-strength. This is how we connect, how we build relationships, how we build community. This is what keeps our hearts pumping. This is how we keep each other alive.
If I can’t convince you that etymology is a seriously fascinating topic (which it is), then at the very least I would like to leave you with one thought. I would like to personally ‘en-cour-age’ you to give out some of your heart-strength today. Even if it feels like you don’t have anything left to give. You never know who may be needing a little burst of connection, and you may just be surprised to find out how much you were craving it too.
Title image by Joshua Hoehne, via Unsplash
