The language of the Founding Fathers is foreign to us today. I do not mean to say we intentionally disregard their wishes, rather I mean it quite literally. For instance, John Adams’ peers may have regarded him as “nice,” but few would describe him that way in today’s language. For to be nice in Colonial America was to be “accurate in judgment to a minute exactness and culpable delicacy; scrupulously cautious; squeamish; refined.” It did not mean one was amicable in nature or easily tolerated (Adams was anything but to many people).

To better understand the intentions of our colonial patriots, then, we must return to their original definitions, not blindly accept the modern meanings of their words, which have evolved greatly over the last 233 years .

Thomas Jefferson famously explained his opinion to King George III that mankind is given from God certain “unalienable[1]” rights, of which are “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” But what exactly did he mean? What was—pardon the philosophical pun—the meaning of “life?” Of “liberty?” Or of “happiness?” We employ these words so commonly and recite this phrase so complacently that their meanings have been diminished. In order to completely understand the precise implications our Founding Fathers made, a simple etymological history lesson is in order.

Life: A Purpose-Driven Existence

According to The Oxford English Dictionary of September, 2009, the primary definition of life is “The condition or attribute of living or being alive; animate existence.” However, the Royal English Dictionary of 1775, a dictionary that Mr. Jefferson may have used himself, describes it much more eloquently. It reads,

“the state wherein the soul and mind are united and co-operate; the present state, opposed to the future; conduct, or the general manner in which a person behaves with respect to virtue or vice; an exact resemblance of living form.” (more…)