Quote

"For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach." -- J.R.R. Tolkien

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Language and Meaning

There is a curious trend that I have been observing for a while now.  Back in the 'old' days (when my parents were kids) words that were considered dirty and filthy were rarely ever spoken.  They were relegated to a list of words that should not be said and simply avoided. 

As time progresses and these words are used more frequently, they are slowly being decontextualized.  These words are being used so frequently and in such non-related situations that they begin to lose whatever meaning that they had originally been imparted with and empowered by social stigmas.

I imagine that as the social stigmas surrounding these words slowly dissipates, the words themselves will come to be simply words that we say without any relevant meaning to them.