Why there are so many meanings of the same word?

Question

Why a word has more than one meaning?

Is it due to the reason that there is/was scarcity of words?

Were the same words invented by different people at different places but later they came to know that particular word already existed, and thus there were so many meaning for the same words?

Or there are some other causes behind it?

Answer 1

well i've never really thought about that so i looked it up on google and this is one of the sites that i found...
http://home.alphalink.com.au/~umbidas/Homonyms_main.htm
interesting stuff?

Answer 2

It is because there are so many people out there that use that word and if they don't quite know what it is called or was called they put another meaning to it. The english language is the perfect specimen of that situation. There are so many english speaking countries out there and each one has their own definition for the same spelled word. When you get them all in the same country like America, and compile a dictionary you just have to include all the meanings in order to compensate all the people. For example, Jelly in America is something you spread on bread and it is just the liquid juice of the fruit because we use jam and preserves as well depending on the consistency. Jam is crushed fruit and Preserves are the whole fruit, both made up into a spreadable substance for bread. So we have three different words for that substance. If you were to go to England and ask for the Jelly for your bread you would get some very wierd looks since Jelly over there means Petroleum Jelly. We also use preserve to mean something that is kept very well in its old age. It is preserved. And we use Jam to mean something that is stuck or some way we are stuck in a situation. We are in a jam or the thing is jammed. That is what makes english so very hard to learn. We also have the problem of word play with the pronounciation of words. Every section of the USA has a different way of putting the enphasis on words. In Michigan, there is a city called Charlotte and there is on in North Carolina too. The one in North Carolina sounds just like the girls name Char'lotte - the emphasis on the first syllable. The city in Michigan puts the emphasis on the second syllable - Char lotte' yet they are both spelled identical. Its just the way it is. The world is heinz 57.

Answer 3

I think it's because when the English language first came to be written down, the spelling of words was up for grabs... any spelling would do if only the reader could puzzle it out.

Many words that meant different things were spelled the same way because that's how the word sounded when it was spoken out loud.

Now we have one spelling for words that have many meanings... there's no scarcity of words, especially if you keep up with slang, but there was that initial (or first, or historical) same spelling that now makes one word stand for many definitions.

Like initial. LJK and first. lol
Good luck in English!

Answer 4

waterotter got it!