"Coining Words"

Coining Words”

 

For 22 years our home was enriched by the presence of a black-and-white feline named Taffy. As she aged it became necessary for our family to coin a term known as desquishtification, which may be defined as scraping the remnants of food in her bowl into a lump in the center of same to make it easier for her to empty said bowl and keep her from turning the air blue with demands that it be done. Usually this took care of the noise until the next time she was hungry.

Recently Karen was group-texting with several friends and someone used a word I’d never heard before: emoticons. It refers to pictures (icons) showing emotions in electronic communications, an area in which I need all the help I can get! I now know what it is but still don’t know how to use it.

Why is it necessary to create new words? Generally speaking, it’s done when the words or expressions available to us are inadequate for what we want to say. If we were to compare a dictionary of today with one from 30 years ago we’d find hundreds of words which were unknown in the previous generation, reflecting a myriad of changes over this period.

When it came to describing the source and nature of the Scriptures in 2 Timothy 3:16 Paul didn’t have an adequate expression so it appears he made one up. This term, theopneustos in Greek, is a compound word meaning literally “God breathed” (translated “inspiration of God” in the KJV). To my knowledge, scholars have never found this word anywhere else in ancient Greek writings. By putting it in Paul’s mind the Holy Spirit is reminding us of the uniqueness of the Bible—all of it comes from the mind of God and He used godly individuals to record it forever (“…Men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”—2 Peter 1:21).

If known words fell short of depicting what God’s Book is and a new one was coined we should be satisfied that it’s special. And because it is it’s worthy of being studied, hidden in our hearts, and obeyed. That’s how we “…Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:18).

Blessings!

Jim McMillan