A WORD A DAY.

Southland Times, Issue 22010, 9 May 1933, Page 8

A WORD A DAY.

UNDERSTANDING. This word suggests clear comprehension and sound judgment. It denotes the power to distinguish truth from falsehood, and in its largest conception embraces the entire faculty of perceiving and conceiving. It is a good, solid, Anglo-Saxon combination, originally written understandan, literally “to stand under,” hence “to comprehend.” ' One who stands under anything has the opportunity to observe the foundation and superstructure—the whole scheme -of reasoning and its parts and relations accurately fitted together. The wise buyer of a building first goes down to investigate the foundation, and the wise thinker goes back to fundamentals. And thus one who would understand man must investigate God, who made man in His image. In a simple way we may say that understanding is clear knowledge. Going a bit further in this direction, we find that a mutual agreement, an adjustment of facts in hand, may be called an understanding. The third syllable of un-der-stand’-ing is accented. Sound u as in up, e as in maker, a as in am, i as in it. “Hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true.”