24. Shifting Meanings

Language is based on agreement. You and I can communicate only insofar as we agree on the meanings of the words we use. If you judge one of the words to have a different meaning than I judge it to have, then I will not be able to communicate what I intend by using that word. Similarly, if I use a word that has no recognizable meaning for you, then I will not communicate anything at all, since for you it will be literal nonsense.

When you encounter a word for which you have no sense, you might look up the word in a dictionary. There you will find a list of meanings that have been agreed on by the broader community of language users. Dictionary definitions are records of this general agreement. The dictionary is not an arbiter of what the word ought to mean, but rather describes what it means in typical usage. From here, you might add this word to your vocabulary, and eventually use it yourself, thus demonstrating that you agree with the rest of us on what it means.

But suppose you do not agree with our meanings. Suppose you feel the word means something different. Nothing prevents you from using the word to mean something other than an agreed-upon meaning. You are free to use any word to mean what you would like it to mean. Others might not understand you at first, but they will most likely work out your meaning through context, especially if you use the word frequently.

It is through this process of proposing new senses that the accepted meanings of words change over time. Along with the birth of entirely new words, this is how the vocabulary of a language shifts.

Such change is only possible because the community of language users continually arrives at new agreements on words and their meanings. If we are recalcitrant in our use of language, if we are unwilling to alter our agreements, then we might find ourselves abandoned by the broader group. Our words then become broken tools — too rigid for the fluidity of communication and even less understood.