A well known scene in Lewis Carroll's
Through the Looking Glass involves a conversation about words between Alice and Humpty Dumpty. Here's how it goes:
“I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory,’ ” Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. “Of course you don’t—till I tell you. I meant ‘there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!’ ”
“But ‘glory’ doesn’t mean ‘a nice knock-down argument’,” Alice objected.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master---that’s all.”
Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. “They’ve a temper, some of them—particularly verbs, they’re the proudest—adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs—however, I can manage the whole lot! Impenetrability! That’s what I say!”
"Would you tell me please," said Alice, "what that means."
I thought of this exchange today after writing about "gay pride" yesterday. Pride, according to a "gay" Humpty Dumpty means public enthusiasm for one's sexual identity and practices which happen to be unnatural and perverse. If, on the other hand, a heterosexual tries to use the word "pride" as in "straight pride," to mean pride in his sexual identity and practices, the "gay" activist protests. According to the "gay" the word, in that context, means hatred, intolerance, and racism. (Just read the article I linked to in the previous post.)
