Word of the Day: Defense
From an early age I played soccer and loved it. My favorite positions to play were the defensive positions — center back, fullback, and sweeper. I loved being a last line of defense before the goal keeper. There was a toughness, bravery, honor, and excitement to having an opponent so close to scoring and knowing I could help protect my team.
Today I’ve been reminiscing on this as I also ponder other meanings of the word defense. Let’s explore what defense means from the perspective of etymology.
defense (noun) :
the action of defending from or resisting attack
the the case presented by or on behalf of the party being accused or sued in a lawsuit
(in sports) the action or role of defending one's goal against the opposition.
An early definition of defense from 1300 says “action of guarding or shielding from attack or injury; act of defending by fighting; a fortified place of refuge.”
Roots of the word defense include Old French defense from the Latin defensus and defendere meaning “ward off, protect.” These are also related to Old French defens and Latin defensum meaning “thing protected or forbidden.”
When we break defendere down into it’s parts, we see de meaning “from, away” and -fendere meaning “strike, push.” Together we could say “push away.”
The word defense is commonly used in sports — as in defending a goal from an opponent. In this usage, we call on the early root meanings of protection. A defender is protecting their goal and shielding from an opposing attack or attempt to score.
We also see the word defense in the context of law. A legal defense is an action of guarding against a prosecution’s attack or threat of punishment. A defendant’s lawyer attempts to shield their client from being found guilty of a crime.
Another use of the word defense comes up in interpersonal relationships. Here is where I’m especially interested in the etymology of the word. In times of trauma we have a defensive instinct that kicks in as a protective measure. We take action or choose words that we hope will ward off harm.
Sometimes, when we’ve been in trauma or post traumatic stress for a while, the defensive instinct becomes a part of our programming. It sticks around in our subconscious even when the immediate danger has passed. You may notice yourself or others reacting to conversations or confrontations with defensiveness.
In these times, I encourage us to bring awareness back to the early Latin root word defendere. By breaking the word down into it’s parts, we see the meaning “push away.”
There are times when it makes sense to push something away — for example, an oncoming ball headed towards your goal in a soccer game.
There are other times where we might not actually wish to push things away. Take for example a partner in a relationship. Perhaps we might need to have an uncomfortable conversation with our partner. If we react with defensiveness, we risk pushing them away. This might not be our intention, simply a consequence of a learned protective behavior.
With awareness of the true meaning of the word defense, we can begin to practice discernment around when we need to defend ourselves and when it is safe to let our walls down. There are times to push away, times to stand firm, and times to draw closer to the people we love.
