Word Studies

In the last few posts, I talked about Jesus, as "the Word." In future posts, I will show how this "Word" can relate to the "words" of Scripture.

Today, though, I am using "word" in its usual sense.

One of our students gava a good example of identifying important words in what a person is studying.

Here is my reply to his report:

"Criticism" was a good example of a common word used in a specialized way.

Historicity is an example of a word being important because of how frequently it occured.

Veracity may have been a word that was slighlty familiar. Your impresion that it meant, "genuine," seems to me like it could fit.

"Something that is true" is one dictionary definition (veracity. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/veracity (accessed: December 22, 2009).)

When I looked up "genuine," one of the synonyms was "true." (genuine. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/genuine (accessed: December 22, 2009).)

So, your guess was pretty good. It was accurate. Just remember the word, "truth," occurs a lot in the definitions too.

When you are studying material with vague or unfamiliar words, a very effective thing to do is to note what you think the word means according to the context of the sentence and see if that idea fits throughout the time of your reading. If it does, great. If not, keep refining your definition or come up with two or more possible meanings based on the context. At the end of your study, compare your guesses with the dictionary. Sometimes you will find an exact match. Most of the time you will find a meaning that is at least close to yours. At other times, you may find you were way off. Still, the discipline of going through this process will cause the word to stick in your mind.