What's in a Word?
by F.R.R. Mallory
February 5, 2007

Shakespeare in his Sonnet #20 provides an interesting opportunity for the limited examination of a few words. The sonnet:

Woman's face, with Nature's own hand painted,
Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion;
A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change, as is false women's fashion;
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
A man in hue all hues in his controlling,
Which steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth.
And for a woman wert thou first created,
Till Nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting,
And by addition me of thee defeated
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
But since she pricked thee out for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love, and thy love's use their treasure.

"Wert," my first selection, proved to be enormously troublesome in that it is a form of the be (bi) verb which is an irregular and defective verb whose origin is believed to be Aryan. The word is directly influenced by the word art (are). Wert is the Middle English archaic past second singular of the be verb which in modern times has become were.

My examination of this word in the Oxford Dictionary was successful if not productive, much like the verb it represents. The dictionary gives several pages over to this word and its many variants yet in the end I felt I still ended up with a rather weak and overused verb. However, within the actual poem I felt the word had more strength. I believe my experience of this may be associated with the word sounding Biblical based on how it is used in the poem.

A-doting is my second word selection. The Oxford Dictionary draws the word from early Middle English [doten, dotien] and MDu [doten] and offers two primary definitions for the word. The second relates to the word dowry and a woman's marriage portion. The first, potentially more applicable to the sonnet, describes an action characteristic of a weak or enfeebled intellect, imbecility, stupidity or instance of decaying mind. The word is the action of the verb duie.

Again, due to where Shakespeare places this word in the poem, interesting threads are given the opportunity to cross. A doting action suggests that Nature (in the feminine aspect) has or is behaving in a mentally decayed way when she designed (the object of the poem). Further, man (possession of a penis) could be said to be part of what becomes a woman's marriage portion, hints of which are also alluded to in this poem. I did find this word productive to examine.

"Pricked" is my third word selection. Prick, [Old English prica, pricca m, price f. mod. Du prickan] is traced to at least 1467 where the word is used in the Charter of Selby Abbey. The most common definition of this word is the idea of being pricked or pierced by a sharp object. However, it cannot be overlooked that pricked is by its nature among those words identified with masculine genitals (penis) and that piercing often alludes to the penetration of the female hymen (piercing of the virgin). In addition, the word prick'd is also associated with pattern making. The poem describes Nature creating a human being and certainly this would follow a pattern of creation, a pattern shaped by a female aspect which again is echoed through Shakespeare's use of the word fashion earlier in the poem.

These overlaying and crossing flow of words and meanings offer ample opportunities when the poem is examined for potential meanings, making it fun to play with.

In summary, wert, in modern common use becomes were. Doting, in modern terms is potentially understood to describe a condition where undue attention is placed upon an object of affection, example: a doting grandmother toward a grandchild. Pricked, has survived in its obscene context when a contemporary person calls someone a prick. The connotation of this as name-calling is designed to be received as offensive and to incorporate the cultural meaning that the individual has acted in a manner without care or concern of the person so naming them. It becomes interesting to consider if the word during Shakespeare's time possessed similar hints or connotations and/or to what degree the word was slanged. It can't be ignored that the individual word still retains evocative power, as is common with the use of obscenities.

A final note, this poem cannot be read without noting the use of th on the ends of several words. This addition to a word goes all the way back to Egyptian religions and reflects an acknowledgement of the God of Thought or Thinking, Thoth. When it is used with a root word it adds on the concept of thinking or thought to the word.

Art Print by Judy Gibson

You don't have to go very far in the speculative fiction genre to run into the idea of the spell book or the wizard's book of magic. This idea is so prolific that it has become a trope cliche. If you like to watch television and enjoyed the witchcraft show Charmed then you know all about their extra special witchy spell book located in the attic - the book with all the answers they would ever need to practice magical arts.

Okay, I will be truthful here and say that I've always found this particular notion rather funny. If you ever venture into a pagan gathering or particularly a juvenile paganesque gathering you are likely to overhear whispers of a book of shadows.

We can deduce from such notions that the idea that great knowledge is hidden inside books and that people who read are potentially magically affected might be connected. After all, reading is a fairly recent activity for the general population and still not a given in many areas of the world and it seems logical to believe that reading might be a magical process, after all, it is invisible - rather like the signals we beam into space.

However, since most people in the United States can and do read it becomes interesting to see that this idea hasn't died out exactly, it has become assigned to lore. Now, books of magic have lore around them and lore is rules. They must be really old books and the pages should be parchment, the scrawls should be hand made, and it should include lots of drawings of obscure meaning - AND - important pages should be damaged and missing - this is the description of the modern book of magic or spells.

Now, I don't want to rain on anyone's cliche here but I am one of those ridiculous people who own a dictionary that is pretty much too heavy to lift. At times I actually READ the dictionary, like a novel. From my perspective the "Book of Words" is an accurate description of any reasonably good dictionary. Inside this single book are the ingredients that, when properly mixed and properly energized, can transform the thinking, ideas and beliefs of millions of people at a time.

Just muse on Harry Potter for a moment and an opening day of book sales in the millions. If that isn't powerful magic then I don't know what is.

So, I tip my glass to the fabulous, fabled "Book of Words" and recognize that each of us is a magician waiting to transform the world with exactly the right combinations.

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