Humpty Dumpty and the Meaning of Words

Recently, I found myself thinking about Humpty Dumpty from Alice in Wonderland. I think it must have been prompted by a passing comment on the radio talkback show that I listen to quite often. Not the nursery rhyme version, but where he is sitting on his wall, calmly saying:

“When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”

Alice responds:

“The question is whether you can make words mean so many different things.”

And Humpty answers:

“The question is, which is to be master — that’s all.”

At first, it sounds humorous, even clever. But the more I think about it, the more it feels surprisingly relevant to everyday life.

We live in a time where words often shift depending on who is using them. The same word can carry completely different meanings in different conversations. Sometimes this flexibility is useful — language naturally evolves. But at other times, it leaves us unsure of what someone truly meant. I see it all the time with text messages. How often have I stared at a short message, wondering if the tone is friendly, annoyed, or joking? Without context, the meaning can be nearly impossible to decipher.

I’ve noticed how often misunderstandings arise not from what was said, but from what was meant. Someone might later explain that their words were taken the wrong way, or that they didn’t mean it like that.

There may be moments when the things someone says are dismissed as jokes, exaggeration, or theatre — only for those very words to later come true. When meaning is unclear, we are forced to take words at face value and respond accordingly. People rarely respond to intention — they have to respond to what was actually said.

As I’ve grown older, I’ve come to value plain speaking more than ever. I like knowing that when I say something, the person hearing it understands exactly what I intended. Not something hidden, softened, or reshaped after the fact, but something simple and honest. It’s a strong reminder to me that words matter, and we should try to think carefully about what we say.

There is a cosy comfort in real meanings. When someone says:

“I care about you,”

it should mean exactly that.

And perhaps there’s one last thought worth smiling about.

For all his confidence in mastering language and defining meaning, Humpty Dumpty is, after all… an egg!

He wondered whether mastery lay with the word itself, or with what we choose to make it mean. A fragile thought, I’d say — a little reminder that when words become too open to interpretation or too self-defined, the wall we sit on may be more delicate than we realise… and sometimes, no matter how clever the argument, we still end up flat on our faces.

♡ Janet

Feature image generated by AI