04
May

Purpose

Greek παύειν “to stop, put to an end, cut short”. In this example, we use this word as the intention to cut short the distance from the bow to the target.

Let’s say you were aimlessly walking in the desert, just barely getting by. You pass by a monk meditating on a rock, and you say to him, “why are you just sitting there in the sun?” After a short while, a chuckle comes from deep in the monk’s belly. The monk responds: “Why are you not doing what you were designed to do?”

Purplexed, you sit down in front of the monk. “WhY aRe YoU nOt DoInG wHaT yOu WeRe DeSiGnEd To Do?”, you mock silently. After a few moments, you copy the monk’s posture, the lotus. After a few days, you unravel the mysteries and the meaning of life. You walk to town, (no small measure) and become one of Greece’s most notable philosophers. It is this deep meaning we use to describe the word. (Our purpose for this.) After some contemplation and study of the etymology does one only find the true meaning of a word.

Etymologically it is equivalent to Latin propositium “a thing proposed or intended,” but also used in France at the same time as a propos, roughly meaning “to the point” or “a plan in which something can be measured”.

To the point: In a modern sense you can say “the reason for being”, “the intent of it’s use”, or something similar; although as stated in the above allegory it has a deeper use.