Of words and meanings

There was an episode in “Young Sheldon” series in which, a specific word triggers memories from his childhood as to when he heard it the first time and the associated incidents. Guess, for many it is quite common to have such “historical” words, especially the swear ones. I too have my share of it, but mostly the non-cuss ones.

Few days back, there was a conversation in which one of the person called the other one, though absent but figured prominently in the chat, as sensitive. I was lost for a moment on what was being discussed further, for I was taken back to the very first instance of when I heard the word. It was during ninth or tenth standard vacation when one of my friends called me as “hyper sensitive”. That was two words about which I had no clue. I thought for a while that he was swearing at me an insult, but didn’t want to take any chance before checking the meaning on my dictionary. The description didn’t help much and I let it go for a while, after which I asked him directly, what did he mean and more importantly from where he learnt that word. He said, since I am too touchy and quick to get offended and angry over trivial things, I am hyper sensitive. I would’ve gotten angrier had it not been for the sincerity in his tone and proceeded to the second part of the question. Till date, when someone says a new word, new for me, the first thing I want to verify is from where they heard/read it and immediately google to find its meaning.

Words, are nothing short of magic for me, especially those that I am learning about for the first time. It is an amazing thing to create one letter by letter. Who would’ve been its creator? How come they decided that such a combination of words should be pronounced and should be used for so-and-so meaning and above all, how it catches the fancy of everyone else to adopt to that convention is nothing short of a scientific theory for me. And I love the history behind them. Like how the word “quiz” came into being. May not be an authentic one, but the way in which someone scribbled the word on the walls of the city and how people wondered about what it meant and finally it dawned on them is a tale of its own.

Probably it is one of the many reasons that, in the age of twitter and character limitation driven world of words, I still prefer the medium where I can blab my head off, trying to describe simple things in as complicated sentences as possible. It sure feels good to type and not quite sure on the tediousness of the read J