The Professor and the Madman

What does it say about the English language when more than 1,000 definitions and words were created by a mass murderer and resident in an insane asylum? Hmmm....well, my guess is that portions of the English language are completely arbitrary. I think this aspect is important for our future students to realize because no one single person has all of the answers. Language is a constantly growing thing where new words and new meanings to old words are constantly added to dictionaries. English teachers need to keep up-to-date on their definitions of words and make sure they are using terms in the right context. Because I read this story, my view of the English language being arbitrary was only confirmed.

On another note, the storyline about the character of Minor completely intrigued me. Here was this genius who contributed more than 1,000 words to the Oxford English Dictionary, the most valid dictionary in today's time, who turned out to be too smart for his own good, which in turn made him become insane and start murdering people. To me, that is pure craziness. I guess it goes to show you that sometimes there is a downfall to being too intelligent. In high school, I heard somewhere that anyone with an IQ above 175 would be considered partially insane. Taking this in and analyzing my own IQ, I realized I'm clear and not insane. Whew. It is just interesting how the human brain, a three ounce object, can lead to such greatness, harm, and insanity.