The Word Not Chosen

AYMAN PATIL
7 min readJun 14, 2022

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English is easy. But the grammar and pronunciation rules make it a little tough to master. Words are an integral part of this language. As American writer, Hugh Prather famously said, “We are all saying the same thing in different words”, choosing the correct ones has always been dependent on a perspective.

So which word dominates English? Is it the one with a complex meaning?

Like Inchoate, which means ‘only partly in existence’, Nonplussed — meaning ‘filled with bewilderment’ or is it Panache which has a definition stating ‘ distinctive and stylish elegance ‘. Well, they are not. Of course, you can use them to flex your vocabulary. But they are nowhere near to the word that dominates the language.

Thinking out of the box, your answer might be the word ‘ Euoue ‘. It is six letters long, but all the letters are vowels. It holds two Guinness World Records. It’s the longest English word composed exclusively of vowels, and it has the most consecutive vowels of any word. If you are wondering about its meaning, it’s a musical term from medieval times. But this also doesn’t make the cut.

Next, you might think that if the complex and the out-of-the-box ones are ruled out, then some long words might be your best bet. Like Sesquiedalianism, a 17-letter word that describes the tendency to use long words. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, a 34-letter word meaning when you have nothing to say. Antidisestablishmentarianism, a 28-letter word that originally described the opposition to the disestablishment of the church of England, but now it may refer to any opposition to withdrawing government support of a particular church or religion. Or it might be Floccinaucinihilipilification, a 29-letter word that recounts the estimation of something as valueless.

Not to forget, Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, one of the longest words in the dictionary — and, in an ironic twist, is the name for a fear of long words. To top it all, Incomprehenssibilities set the record in the 1990s as the longest word ‘ in common usage ‘. But none of them is the one we are talking about.

The point to be noted is that I didn’t include Psuedopseudohypoparathyroidism and many other such words because they are more of a medical term. Then what about some cool words like Shoshin — the practice of seeing life with wonder, Metanoia — which signifies one to turn from the darkness and face the light, or what about Codidwomple — that is to travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination. OK, now this is enough, let’s settle to Paraprosexia, which means a constant distraction.

The thing is that we may settle down and make a word dominant in our writing, but as I said earlier, it’s your perspective and has nothing to do with the language in general. The main factor in judging dominance is the plethora of meanings a word can convey. These words are sometimes referred to as ‘ Homographs ‘. They’re spelt identically but have vastly different meanings. In general, three words have this esteemed honour to the rulers of the language accordingly. At the third position comes the word ‘ Go ‘ with a total of 368 definitions.

‘ Go ‘ is one of the most ubiquitous everyday words in the English language. The prominent meaning of it is to move from one place to another. The other definitions include travel, leave, depart, an attempt or trial at something, a person’s turn to use or do something and as an adjective — functioning properly. the list goes on and on.

In the second place, we have the word ‘ Set ‘ with 430 definitions to its fame. Some most used ones are, first — to physically put something in a position. For example, you can set a book on a table, set some boxes next to a desk and so on. Second, put something into a certain state. An example is to set something on fire, set someone free, or set something in motion. Third, adjust controls on a device. To set an alarm means to program your watch, clock or cell phone to sound an alarm at a certain time.

A dummy sentence explaining this is: I usually set my alarm at 6:30 am because that’s when I like to wake up. Fourth — to decide on a date or price. It can be used for deciding on something, most typically a date — when people plan to marry, they would set a date for the wedding. Sometimes it is also used for deciding on a rate or a price. A store might set the price of a new product at $100 — meaning they have decided to sell it at that price.

Fifth — to establish. Examples of this definition are to set a record, set the agenda for a meeting, set a good example, etc. Sixth — Set as a noun can mean a group of things that are all the same. It can be a set of keys or a set of tools. Seventh — When the sun goes down below the horizon. You could say ‘ in the summer, the sun sets at 8 pm ‘. the event of this happening is called sunset.

Eighth — Set as an adjective can also mean ‘ ready ‘. We typically use this in the expression ‘ all set ‘. Ninth — it could also mean fixed. For example, a factory would have a set procedure for all the operating machines. Tenth — the physical place where scenes are filmed. As a noun, the ‘ Set ‘ is the place where scenes of the show, movie or play are acted and filmed. There are even phrasal verbs associated with ‘ Set ‘ such as — set apart, set aside, set off, and many more. Thus being a strong contender for second place.

Surpassing it, the first position is held by the word ‘ RUN ‘. It is anticipated to have approximately 645 different meanings in the next Oxford English Dictionary, set for a 2037 release. Why does a dressmaker run up a frock? Why run through a varlet with a sword?

How come you run a fence around a field? Why indeed run this video? More significantly ‘ Run ‘ is also far bigger than the old chestnut ‘ Set ‘, a word that hasn’t undergone as much development in the 20th and 21st centuries as has ‘ Run ‘. The decline of ‘ SET ‘ is due to the word ‘ PUT ‘, noting that you now put a vase on the mantle, rather than set it there, and put words on paper, not set them.

Meanwhile, the word ‘ Run ‘ exploded with the increase in the number of machines and computers: a train runs on a track, a car runs on gas, an iPad runs apps. Old ‘ Runs ‘ are, in other words generating new meanings like you now run out on someone or you run something past someone, a demonstration of the living nature of the language. Famous shades of ‘ Run ‘ include:

First — Go fast by moving your legs quickly. You can run away, run off run to, run around or run after or even better, you could go running. Second — to manage. For example, he runs an import business. If we describe something as well-run or say it runs smoothly or efficiently, it means it operates and functions well. Third — Operating on schedule. For example, the train runs every hour or bus services stop running at midnight. If a mode of transport is delayed, we can say it’s running late. Fourth — to function. Like, the engine’s running or software running on the computer.

Fifth — to flow. My nose is running or the little boy had tears running down his cheeks. Sixth — Continue to operate for a while. The internship runs from June to August or the engineering project ran from 2014 to 2021. Seventh — To do. Scientists run an experiment or a teacher runs a test. Eight — A quick trip. He’s going to make a grocery run or the package will be dropped off during the next delivery run. Ninth — A sequence of similar events. Saying you’re having a run of bad luck means that unlucky things are happening to you frequently. Or a video might have a successful run if it manages to garner a lot of views.

Tenth — To run. One informal meaning of ‘ Run ‘ is to leave — when someone says “ I’ve gotta run “ it means “ I need to leave “. And the list continues. Like ‘ Set ‘, ‘ Run ‘ too has many phrasal verbs such as run out of, run-down, run-into, run over, run through etc.

The fact that a simple 3 letter word could convey 600+ meanings is enough to justify its control over the language. After all, as someone famously said, “ Two meanings converged into a single word, I took the one less chosen, and that has made all the difference “.

THANKS

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AYMAN PATIL

Hey there internet! This is Ayman and I write blogs for fun