Invented Words

Okay, I am going to admit something here that requires a bit of courage.

When I was in elementary school I used to make up words to impress my friends.

There, I’ve said it! I must tell you that I feel much better for having confessed this short-coming to all of you.

I enjoyed reading when I was a kid and understood rather quickly that through it I could learn things my teachers were either unwilling or unable to teach me. I also realized that I could control my environment (especially in the classroom) by bombarding my teachers with some of the knowledge I was subversively acquiring in the library.

I remember in the third grade, as our teacher was having us go through one of those “Atom Bomb” disaster drills, utilizing my skill for manipulating information to provoke my own mini-civil emergency. Mrs. Rucker repeated the usual cold-war mantra, “Class, when you see the flash: fall to the floor; crawl under your desk; and, put your head on your knees.” At this I raised my hand and, when called upon, began to explain in great detail my recent findings that if we could actually see the flash we were all going to die anyway. I believe it was when Diane Fast and a few other girls began to cry on the other side of the room that I decided to “go for the gold” and include my own scientific-sounding words to add credence to my rather florid description of the anatomical results of a nuclear explosion.

Personally, I don’t think it was necessary for Mrs. Rucker to grab me by the collar as she had two boys move my desk out into the hallway. However, I will tell you my sojourn out there was well-worth the small embarrassment it might have caused me. Listening to her trying to calm down the more emotional children was sufficient reward for some of the sarcastic comments I received from random “hall-walkers.”

Now, before you are tempted to criticize my short-coming, you should be aware that I am not alone in my invention of new terminology.

In all of Shakespeare’s work - the plays, the sonnets and the narrative poems – he used 17,677 different words. Of those, 1,700 were first used and possibly invented by Shakespeare. Some of the new words which we use regularly today are: accommodation, aerial, assassination, bump, courtship, dwindle, laughable, lonely and pious. And, just in case you are suspicious as to whether I am making this all up, you should know he invented the word “suspicious,” as well.

The Apostle Paul was not opposed to the odd foray into “language pioneering.” When it suited his purposes he was more than willing to go where no man had ever gone before.

In Ephesians 1:18,19 we read, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” (NIV)

The phrase translated to English as “incomparably great power” is “huperballon megethos” in the Greek. If I (and the fellows I read) understand correctly, the term megethos only appears once in the New Testament. It is used other places in literature to mean “strong” or “great.” However, using this solitary term wasn’t enough for Paul. So, he adds the compound word huperballō. The full idea of Paul’s invented term is that of a power beyond measure, super abounding or surpassing power… power that is more than enough.

Looking down at my expanding middle-age waistline, I get the idea of words that are stretching at their seams as Paul tries to pour more meaning into them.

By the way, have you noticed that Paul doesn’t include what God’s power exceeds? The obvious implication is that it exceeds everything. Paul simply could not say enough about the greatness and majesty of God, and as exact a language as Greek is, he still had difficulty even finding words to express his thoughts.

Deuteronomy 10:17 says, “The LORD your God is more powerful than all other gods and lords, and his tremendous power is to be feared…” He is a God bigger than the biggest nuclear bomb I was frightened with in my childhood. He is bigger than any word or term Paul could invent. He is greater and more powerful than the challenges and enemies any of us will have to face in the coming week.

Until next time, I close by say “Bonzito” (a word Susan and her siblings made up, meaning “good-bye”).