Wicked Words - Definition

Hugh Rawson's "Wicked Words" is an example of well written definition essay. He presents connotative and denotative definitions of the word “dog”. He gives us the direct definition of “dog”first to inform us of the original meaning, “the first of the animals to be domesticated”, later we are able to compare explicit meanings with the original. Some examples of explicit definitions of “dog” given are: An ugly person, often a women; a worthless person, as in “Am I a dog that though comest to me with staves?” Rawson writes that only rarely is “dog” used affectionately. It more than often is used to describe a chore, and negative action done by a person. In the English language we have many words that have several meanings. It seems as though over time explicit meanings of words are becoming more common. For example “gay” was used to express the feeling of happiness, this was before it acquired its present sexual orientation. This secondary meaning has caused controversy. Some may find this word offensive if used in the explicit tense. It is ironic how a word such as “gay” which once had the single definition of happiness can now cause offensive feelings because of its development of denotative definition.