LEa: Created page with "occurs in: ''Keywords for Radicals: The Contested Vocabulary of Late-Capitalist Struggle'', p. 18 The term ''polysemy'' comes from Ancient Greek: ''polys'' meaning “many” and ''sema'' meaning “sign”. An expression, for example a word, a phrase or a symbol, of polysemic character has several distinct but related meanings, and is therefore ambiguous. In ''Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society'', Raymond Williams states that ''“[…] questions are not o..."

2026-01-13T21:58:22Z

Created page with "occurs in: ''Keywords for Radicals: The Contested Vocabulary of Late-Capitalist Struggle'', p. 18 The term ''polysemy'' comes from Ancient Greek: ''polys'' meaning “many” and ''sema'' meaning “sign”. An expression, for example a word, a phrase or a symbol, of polysemic character has several distinct but related meanings, and is therefore ambiguous. In ''Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society'', Raymond Williams states that ''“[…] questions are not o..."

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occurs in: ''Keywords for Radicals: The Contested Vocabulary of Late-Capitalist Struggle'', p. 18

The term ''polysemy'' comes from Ancient Greek: ''polys'' meaning “many” and ''sema'' meaning “sign”. An expression, for example a word, a phrase or a symbol, of polysemic character has several distinct but related meanings, and is therefore ambiguous.

In ''Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society'', Raymond Williams states that ''“[…] questions are not only about meaning; in most cases, inevitably, they are about meanings.”'' He goes on to explain that when writing a dictionary entry, the meaning of a word is usually strongly tied to a specific place and time. However, with words, especially those that describe ideas or values, we usually encounter a complexity of meanings that includes changes over time. In this sense, most words are polysemic and difficulties arise when one tries to squeeze them into a single definition.

Ironically, the first thing I did for this glossary entry was to write a definition. When I first read the word ''polysemic'', I did not know the meaning and had to look up a definition myself to make sense of it. Looking back now—I could have translated it had I given it little more thought.

[[Category:Grapevine]]

Polysemic - Revision history