Making Meaning Out of MishMash

a deepish dive into a weird word + a writing prompt for you

I love words. My proofreading app Grammarly routinely tells me I use more unique words than 98% of its users. Is this because my freelance work writing church curriculum has me using words like eschatology and sacramental? Perhaps. It’s certainly not because I start Substack posts with sentences like “I love words.”

Here’s a little tip for you fellow logophiles: Dictionary.com shares a Word of the Day and yesterday’s was:

TUESDAY, AUGUST 08, 2023

ikigai

[ ee-kee-gahy ]

noun

one’s reason for being, which in principle is the convergence of one’s personal passions, beliefs, values, and vocation.

Loving words is helpful when your ikigai includes writing words well.

But it can be a problem when you get stuck searching for the perfect word to express an idea. Minutes tick by as you stare at a blank screen or tumble down a diverting rabbit trail on the internet.

Once I was looking for the perfect word to describe the early church described in Acts 2—that amazing spirit-filled community, and rag-tag bunch of converts whose disparate lives were so changed by the story of Jesus. Somehow I ended up on Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary page for the word mishmash.¹

This is a word I know. I grew up hearing it, but not everyone knows it—some families’ lexicons are different. There was this short and sweet definition of mishmash listed:

mishmash

noun

mish·​mash ˈmish-ˌmash -ˌmäsh

: HODGEPODGE, JUMBLE

A hodgepodge frankly isn’t any clearer in meaning.

Another definition said: a confused mixture of things, which seemed appropriate for the list of mishmash synonyms which included diverse words like gallimaufry, omnium-gatherum, farrago, salad, and clutter.

The thesaurus link for mishmash led to this definition: an unorganized collection or mixture of various things. (Aha, I thought—this seemed pretty close to describing the church then and now.)

What I found really fascinating was the (now removed) question Merriam-Webster asked further down the page:

What made you want to look up mishmash? Please tell us where you read or heard it.²

The posted comments revealed an amazing mishmash of people who had all found themselves looking up the same word online:

• A faculty member at an Islamic university in Cairo, Egypt read the word mishmash in an article describing a C5 Corvette.

• A grandmother in England heard about mishmash meals, using leftovers to make a new dish, and someone else had ordered a dish in Bulgaria called mishmash.

• An Information Specialist at a major oil company declared Mishmash to be an ancient town in Israel.

• Then a staff member with the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, and other people around the world gave some of the references in the Bible to the town Michmach (in 1 Samuel, Isaiah, Nehemiah, Ezra).

• Someone found the word in a 17^th-century German manuscript about meat carving, complaining copyright infringers had taken and published bits of it in a document called a mischmasch.

• One person attributed its use to her grandfather, who was describing her messy room as a mishmash.

People also got to the dictionary webpage about mishmash while doing crossword puzzles in Minnesota, looking at ancient maps in the UK, visiting Camp War Eagle in Arkansas, studying Hebrew Scripture in Scotland, and then me—a pastor and writer in North Carolina, looking for a word to describe the early church.

One weird word brought a merry mishmash of people from across the globe to an online dictionary webpage. There was no arguing about correct usage. No insistence on the best context or superior definition. Just a communal curiosity and delight in the wonders of language with others seeking to understand and grow. I clicked away wondering if the church today—and all our wider online communities— could learn something about how to appreciatively mingle and meld from the mishmash of Merriam-Webster’s readers.

a writing prompt

What words did you learn from your family or community of origin that not everyone uses?

(Along with mishmash, my list includes fritter as an expletive, in addition to a fried thing and a verb about wasting time or money).

Look up one or more of your words in an online dictionary like this one. What definitions are given? Check out the synonyms or consult a thesaurus.

Write about the word/words in the context of your family, or wherever your exploration of it takes you.

OR….write about your own ikigai.³

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I’d love to hear about your words (and your ikigai.) Drop a comment below and let’s see what kind of mishmashed lexicon and creative callings we share as a writing community.

Let me know what you think about the prompt, or come back and add some of what you write in the comments. Know someone who might enjoy this prompt or others? Please share!

Photo by Felicia Montenegro on Unsplash

Welcome to Writing in Company. Each week I share some words and a writing prompt, meant to be jumping-off points for you to write about what matters. Use the prompts however you like—to journal, to draft thoughts for your own writing project, as meditation or prayer ideas, or for another creative endeavor. If this one doesn’t resonate, take a look back through the archive for one that does. Grab your pen and paper, and let your words loose on the page.

1. “Mishmash.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mishmash. (Accessed 17 Jul. 2023 although I first looked it up in 2018.)

2. Sadly, they no longer seem to ask this question or allow comments from readers. Those cited above were all on the web in 2018.

3. Frederick Buechner described it as a calling: “The place…where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Parker Palmer says it is “the thing you can’t not do.”