One Apple A Day #326
During the preparation for a short webinar that I did yesterday, I explored the meaning of a few words.
The subject contains some topics that apparently seems unrelated such as self-awareness, being extraordinary and innovation.
These are three ideas very dear to me, and I believe they are bounded.
I feel it.
But I need an easy way to explain this feeling.
As I always do in these cases, I started researching the etymology of the words.
I started from “ordinary”.
early 15c., “belonging to the usual order or course,” from Old French ordinarie “ordinary, usual” and directly from Latin ordinarius “customary, regular, usual, orderly,” from ordo (genitive ordinis) “row, rank, series, arrangement”
So, something ordinary belongs to the usual order, norm, way of doing things, practices.
As you would imagine, the word “extraordinary” derives from “ordinary”.
early 15c., from Latin extraordinarius "out of the common order,” from extra ordinem “out of order,” especially the usual order, from extra “out” (see extra-) + ordinem
So, anything extraordinary is something different from the norm. Something that stands out from the usual standard practices.
And here is where things became interesting.
The verb to Innovate comes from the Latin too.
1540s, “introduce as new” (trans.), from Latin innovatus, past participle of innovare “to renew, restore;” also “to change,” from in- “into” (from PIE root *en “in”) + novus “new” (see new). Intransitive meaning “bring in new things, alter established practices” is from 1590s. Related: Innovated; innovating.
Wait a minute. Alter established practices. Change what exists such us norms, products, services, ways of doing things and make them new, different from before.
This is the connection I was looking for!
To Innovate means to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.
And self-awareness?
This is something for one of next days as today’s 15 minutes are gone.