A WORD A DAY.

Southland Times, Issue 21179, 4 September 1930, Page 6

A WORD A DAY.

EDIFY. The evolution of this word from the Latin aedes to our present significance is interesting. The Latin aedes originally meant a “fireplace or hearth,” and as that feature has often been called the heart of a household, it must have been so considered then, top, for later aedes denoted a whole dwelling or building, and aedificare meant “to build.” The old French form edifier, “to build up,” is still closer to our English spelling. The literal significance of “to construct or set up or to work up materials into a structure” has been out of use for many years, but in its figurative sense of “to establish and organize,” as a system, institution, or law, or “to establish and strengthen,” as a person or a moral quality, the word is in current use. Some authorities believe that the modern use began with the Puritans; certainly its extension in a spiritual way has been rapid since that time. To build up or increase the faith, and holiness; to benefit spiritually; to strengthen morally; to impart instruction along religious lines; to make people wiser and better; these are the modern conceptions of edifying. “Comfort yourselves together and edify one another.”