The Semantics of Sasquatch

Posted by admin on November 28, 2007

== While I take a break for the holidays, enjoy “The Best of Bigfoot Quest.” ==

** part one in the Semantics Series **

These days, many people seem to have forgotten the true meanings of words and phrases. Nobody wants to open up a dictionary anymore, and so the meanings of words become hazy in our minds, vulnerable to misuse. Many Bigfoot researchers like to throw words around like heavy stones, in the hopes one will knock an opponent senseless. Yet their use of the words shows how little they truly understand the meanings of those words. In response to this growing and annoying trend, I’ll begin a series of posts dealing with the semantics of Sasquatch research.

Semantics refers to the study of meaning. Every word has at least one specific, historically documented meaning. Most have several. To start things off, let’s examine the word “primate.”

Many Bigfoot researchers use the words primate and ape interchangeably; however, the words are not synonyms. A primate is “any of an order (Primates) of mammals that are characterized esp. by advanced development of binocular vision, specialization of the appendages for grasping, and enlargement of the cerebral hemispheres and that include humans, apes, monkeys, and related forms (as lemurs and tarsiers).” An ape is “any of two families (Pongidae and Hylobatidae) of large tailless semierect primates (as the chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan, or gibbon).”

Hmm…they don’t sound like synonyms to me. If you call Bigfoot primates, then I would agree with you. Humans are primates too. But if you call Bigfoot apes, I would disagree. First of all, Bigfoot are not semierect; they walk upright just like humans. Before you use a word like primate or any word as a weapon in your intellectual arsenal, make sure you understand its meaning.

Definitions taken from Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition

Source: The Semantics of Sasquatch