Yesterday's word 'may' seemed to me to haver quite a few meanings, but it is nowhere near the word with the most meanings. 'Set' has 464 definitions in the Oxford English Dictionary. 'Run' is next with 396, 'Go' has 368, 'take' has 343, 'stand '334, 'get' has 289, 'turn' has 288, 'put' has 268 'fall' has 264 and 'strike' has 250.
The Guinness Book of records says that 'set' has 430 senses listed. It also has the longest entry in the dictionary with 60,000 words.
But 'run' over-ran the overs, according to Simon Winchester, an authority. 'Run' has 645 distinct meanings according to the author of The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. His piece on it was titled "A Verb for Our Frantic Times". The top three are 'run', 'put', and 'set'. I would go with Simon's top three as he is working on this. Here's the interview here in the article titled:
Has 'Run' Run Amok? It Has 645 Meanings ... So Far
Our picture today was on the cover of "The New Quarterly" this month. It is a quarterly journal of Canadian writing. I wrote a paragraph about the image taken in Cuba and what I like about the image. You can see the journal here. This is what I wrote:
A visit to Cuba provided the environment for great photographic fun for me. I found this tri-wheeled vehicle charming and distinctive. This image has many elements that I look for. The emotion of the scene is the anticipation of the person—looking towards something, waiting and seeking. Then the brilliant colour was there to be showcased. The triangulation of red in the background seems to move the eye to the yellow taxi, and then we focus on the text on the grill: “colonial”—so much said in that word. For me, an epic story is captured.
