Prosperity.
We hear about it all the time. But what does it mean? Is there even a real meaning for the word that we can resonate with? OK, so I’ll go get the dictionary. Hang on….
Well, in the Oxford School dictionary – Prosperous means successful; rich and Prosperity is the noun. Not very exciting is it?
What’s worse than that, to my mind, is that they are not even listing it as a word in it’s own right and that means they are not about to teach about Prosperity in the school that uses this resource are they? Hmmm, I might explore that idea another day.
I’ve got another dictionary, hang on, I’ll just go and get it….
Now, this is better.
The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English DOES list Prosperity. Good fortune and success especially in money matters. To me that is much closer to the mark. I wonder how much use a Thesaurus will be in my quest for clarity….?
Now, Macquarie: Australia’s National Dictionary according to the front cover…. other words they list for PROSPEROUS are fortunate and wealthy. No listing for Prosperity in it’s own right.
So from our search for meaning in the dictionary and thesaurus on hand I’m able to find that in the Western world and Australia in particular the accepted meaning of Prosperous and Prosperity are:
- Successful,
- Rich
- Good Fortune
- Success, especially in money matters
- Fortunate
- Wealthy
I could go on of course, it’s a fascinating process using these resources and following their leads. Have you ever done it? It’s weird but fun. For example what does wealthy or rich or fortunate mean? I suspect for most people they would relate to money matters because that is our cultural conditioning. Successful, Rich, Fortunate and Wealthy all resonate with our ideas around having money.
Interesting.
I wonder if it can mean something else
or ifmoney is really it’s most potent measure?
