The Little Voice - Bringing a Light to the Word

^{Photo by Jaredd Craig on Unsplash}

How many dictionaries do you have in your house? Do you have any? Do you rely on the internet for your definitions? Or, are you a little bit anal like myself, and maybe start with the online dictionary to find the quick meaning behind a word, and then, if you're really super interested in the word, move to the hardback copy of your own dictionary?

I've got The New Collins Concise English Dictionary which "takes pains to ensure that no reader will retire baffled in his attempt to find an item..." and where, "the user is helped by [the dictionary editors'] sensible practice of placing the common modern meanings of a word first in the entry..." and I've had said dictionary since 1986/87. So, it's a friend. But, it's an old friend and I'm sometimes a little lapse in connecting.

However, I am also rather partial to my other dictionary, and we've been friends since 2004. I remember when I first cast my eyes on her. She was sitting there bold as brass on the bookshelf in the Owl Bookshop in Kentish Town, just daring me to take a peek inside. There were two reasons at the time for doing so. Number one I had to pick her up and turn her around to see her monetary value. I smiled, they had miscalculated, and then I opened her up at random. The softness of her pages reminded me of tissues; she was delicate but strong. She contained so much wisdom. And I could have her for the incredible price of 30 British Pounds. And that was the second reason. I wanted her.

Foreplay over, I rushed home. ;)

Dived inside and became consumed. Deep Breath out! Time to go slower. I held her gently, opened the first page and saw the virgin white pages. Between thumb and index finger, I very carefully began to explore further into her hidden depths. She supplied her contents willingly.

Inside I found her Editorial team. They were in and amongst her Roman pages.

They were the comperes for this show. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson kicked off with the preface, explaining the subject: the English language; the scope: beginning with the first edition, published back in 1911, to the present eleventh edition, that was the first Concise for the 21st century; and her aims...

Angus looked at Catherine and said, "What we gonna do tomorrow night, Brains?" to which she replied (totally straightfaced), "Same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world."

But seriously, no, that didn't happen inside the dictionary at all. Just inside my head, and now hopefully yours too! Isn't it fun what you can do with words?

The aims of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary are much more serious, and no laughing matter! Stop sniggering Hubert! Or I'll send you outside. The aims are to 'offer a description of the language that is as accurate, up to date, and objective as possible...' The twelfth edition, and second of this century, is now out in bookshops near you. ;)

Going back to my edition though, and my particular copy, I turned towards the Introduction where her structure was laid out for me. Her Entry Structure was explained. The way into her was opened up and I could take my time to learn as much as I wanted to about each and every word, walking through the 1,681 pages at my leisure with thumb and index finger.

ENTRY STRUCTURE: CORE SENSE AND SUBSENSE

Each word has at least one core sense, which acts as a gateway to other, related subsenses.

^{Concise Oxford English Dictionary, Eleventh Edition 2004, page ix}

The dictionary — a tome of exploration; have you ever found it quite so sexy?

Since joining Steemit, and then joining some incredible communities within this space, I have become reacquainted with my loving dictionary. She has sat on her shelf waiting patiently for me to come and play with her again. Over the last few weeks, I have dropped inside her ocean of words, the little voice swimming around in her sea of senses. Each time a #dropintheocean has explored a new word, there I go, diving in again and again.

For my first venture, I ran solo, without my darling...maybe it was because the concept was not one word but two.

Critical Thinking

What is it? Well, if I didn't know before, I certainly have more of a handle on it now. The other members within the #BuddyUp community, who joined in on the fun, wrote some brilliant, and illuminating posts. My favourite on this particular week was @eaglespirit's haiku. I loved how much power was contained in this three line poem consisting of 17 syllables.

The Haiku poetic form has an interesting history dating back to 17th century Japan. It began life as the hokku, the opening stanza of the much longer collaborative poetry style called rengu.

Imagine, if you will, an older time, a time when poets sat together collaboratively creating beautiful poetry. Once upon a time, one such poet, Matsuo Bashō, who posthumously was sainted for his contribution to Japanese literature, was a master of this tradition. During his lifetime he wandered the Japanese countryside composing his poetry, writing travel and biographical prose and creating artwork. Divine!

Digression - Over!

At this point, I returned to my darling and flicked through her tissue-like pages to the letter 'D'. To help brighten the words to my failing eyesight, I donned my reading glasses, gaining a crystalline clear view of the black print on the white pages. Digestif | Dilapidated, the word I was searching for should be here, somewhere on this page. Slap bang in the middle of the last column I found it.

Digress

Leave the main subject temporarily in speech or writing.

Go for a meander to somewhere else, much like Matsuo Bashō. Leave the main event for a while. Go on holiday and leave your real life behind. It will still be there waiting for you when you return.

Just like my ever-faithful dictionary sitting patiently on the shelf.

Astonishing...Isn't it? How we hold and cherish some things. They hold a value that isn't expressed through the monetary price of 30 British Pounds. Their value is one of perception.

How do you perceive the value of something that holds within it "each word [that] has at least one core sense, which [then] acts as a gateway to other, related subsenses." How far can you digress withinside ^{(1 archaic : on the inner side)} before you have changed so far that on your return, you find the topic has changed, once again, completely?

The word this week is...

Lucidity: clear,
Translucent window opens
Away from opaque

Perspective looking
From another bright angle,
Cast its long shadow.

Together opaque
And lucidity stir round
And round, and round, and...

bright lucidity
disintegrating darkness
until you can't see!

I feel the slip of the lucid moment ease itself out as the layers upon layers reveal themselves. Take your pick. Take your moment. Take your word. Spin it this way and that. Speak it loud. Speak it slow. Speak it from over there. Speak it from under a chair. Oh my! I’ve turned into Dr. Seuss. Here can’t you hear me:

Is this the kind lucidity you were after?

It's what I found withinside my dictionary.

Sources for the images used within my linked Haiku poem:-

window - Photo by Chris Liu on Unsplash
round and around - Photo by Michael Ankes on Unsplash
shadow - Photo by Steve Shreve on Unsplash
yin and yang - Photo by OpenClipart-Vectors on Pixabay

If you'd like to join the extremely lucid #DropintheOcean group, we meet up on the #BuddyUp server discord each Monday at 8 pm UTC. You can join the show by using this link: https://discord.gg/3d5H3K8