As a writer, I have a passion for finding the right words to complete a sentence or a stanza. But as an intellectual, I equally have a distaste for words. All words.

Let me explain. Words are meaningless. They’re empty shells we fill with meaning, but at their core are empty. Words that meant one thing in the past, perhaps being considered crude or derogatory, no longer are in the present. And many of the words that are presently crude or derogatory may not have been in the past and will not be in the future.

“If Shakespeare required a word and had not met it in civilized discourse, he unhesitatingly made it up.”

-Anthony Burgess

Consider a modern stereo system. There is the input, which for this example we’ll say is an MP3, and the output, which is the audible sounds that come out of the speaker. What you hear depends on the quality of the MP3, the receiver (which processes the audio), and the speakers. The MP3 can be of a certain quality but get lost in translation and come out differently through the speakers.

Words exchanged between humans are very similar. The person speaking is trying to convey a message with an intent, and the person receiving the message interprets it. The speaker can be attempting to be polite or mean, and the receiver chooses, consciously or unconsciously, to receive it as one or the other. Ultimately as the receiver, you give a word its meaning.

If you are a human you’ve likely experienced a situation where words you’ve said have been misinterpreted. “Good luck with that,” you might say. “What do you mean, ‘good luck with that?’” someone might respond with a glare and a neck snap.

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