December 19 - Week 3

Stitches

I spent 4-ish hours in the car earlier this week driving down south to my parents house in Battle Ground, WA. On the way down, I spent some quality time listening to my faithful History of English Podcast. During the ride I learned the etymology (the history and origin) of several words. The one that stuck with me in the car was stitch.

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, stitch comes from the Old English stice which means "a prick, puncture, sting, stab" . Of course the word comes from an even older Proto-Germanic word. Eventually, the stitch took on a meaning of a "sudden, stabbing pain in the side". This is why we now use the phrase "you had me in stitches". As for the verb form, the word meant "to stab, pierce". This led to its current meaning of "to sew something".

Stitch is only one of thousands and thousands of words that have shifted and changed meaning over time. Language is always flowing and changing as people think of new ways to use words. And most of the time, we don't get too worried about it. We just start using language in a new way and allow the change to just happen. Sometimes we even encourage and embrace new language changes. In my lifetime, there have been lots of word changes. Literally now means "absolutely not literally", gay is a sexual orientation, and bunches of words can be shortened (totes, bae, legit, etc.). I'm just along for the linguistic ride.

This has me thinking about how we respond when people start to change. When people start to morph, shift and change, it can be pretty distressing. It's hard when someone you know (perhaps yourself!) starts to behave differently than what you're used to. And yet, that's what people (and languages) do. We change and grow before our very eyes. Frankly, even though it can be scary, it's also pretty exciting. We aren't limited to how we've been in the past. We can creatively grow ourselves into something new at anytime. Just like language.

So, just like language, people change with the flow of time. The next time someone you know (or yourself!) starts to change, embrace it. 

In closing, please enjoy a little thematic Shawn Mendes: Stitches!