Today we’re going to talk about con. That small Latin prefix means “with” or “together,” and it shows up everywhere. For instance: connect, converse, context.
The uses are straightforward enough.
- Connect comes from con + nectere, meaning “to bind together.”
- Converse comes from con + vertere, “to turn with,” the back-and-forth turning of words between people.
- Context comes from con + texere, “to weave,” and literally means the surrounding words or situation are “woven together” and give meaning.
Now for the twist. What happens when we take the con out?
- Nect comes from nectere, which means to bind or tie—but to what? Without the con, it’s just a couple of ropes lying on the ground.
- Verse comes from vertere, “to turn,” but without someone to turn with (the con), it’s just a beatnik on stage reading angst poetry to the crowd, useless for two-way communication.
- And context is the most revealing of all. Remove the con and all you’re left with is text. You know…that thing we all do with our smart phones.
Text alone has no tone, no timing, no body language, none of the shared understanding that actually weaves meaning together. That’s why a text message that feels lighthearted face-to-face can come across as cold, angry, or confusing when it’s reduced to a few simple words on your smartphone. We think we’re sending the message, but without the con, the togetherness falls away, and the reader is left to supply it based entirely on his own interpretation.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine how many you get when you’re speaking face-to-face where we can connect and converse with someone while the context is still intact.
Tom Bont's Silver Key 