Guy de Maupassant says, “Les mots ont une ame . . . . Il faut trouver cette ame qui apparait au contact d’autres mots” (Words have a soul . . . . It is necessary to find this soul which appears at contact with other words).
Owen Barfield, who quotes this passage, comments: “this ‘contact’ with other words is the precise point at which the potential new meaning originally enters language.” Which means that new meaning is always potentially entering the language since words are always being put into contact with new sets of words.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Of Roots and Adventures
I have lived in Ohio, Michigan, Georgia (twice), Pennsylvania, Alabama (also twice), England, and Idaho. I left…
Our Most Popular Articles of 2025
It’s been a big year for First Things. Our website was completely redesigned, and stories like the…
Our Year in Film & Television—2025
First Things editors and writers share the most memorable films and TV shows they watched this year.…
