New Word for Self-Reflection - “Implain”

I propose a new word for the English language: Implain. Unfortunately, however, until it’s recognised and becomes known it will continue to come up with an annoying red-squiggle under it in Microsoft Word.

To ‘google’ the word, implain, we simply get nouns i.e. people’s names, or our search goes to results for “implant.”

Rationale for the new word: consider explode, which means crudely, to “burst noisily,” with implode which means just as generally, to “burst inward.”[1] Or, perhaps, expel compared with impel. The prefixes ‘ex-’ and ‘im-’ seem to have generally consistent application--application we can extend to this word, implain.

To explain is to ‘make level’… make known, plain and understandable… to show logical development or relationships of things.[2] It is an outward action of behaviour of creating shared understanding.

To implain is to ‘seek level’… creation of, or towards, making known i.e. as an antecedent to ‘making known, plain and understandable.’ It is further, the organising of the logical development or relationship of things. It is an inward action of thought and reflection toward the goal of later creating a shared understanding, and even a personal understanding--and that as its end.

Moreover, our ‘implanations’[3] might never be shared. In this way, implanation is the self-explanation that goes on in our internal world of learning and attribution. It’s the process of developing our perceptions.

The introverted are perfectly suited to implaining whereas explaining suits the extrovert, unless we allow the introvert to consider and plan for their explanations.

And the benefit of deliberate i.e. planned implaining, you might ask? Well, it goes to work for our planning activities, in considering what we may need to explain in our day to day.

Consider the amount of times we’re asked to explain ourselves, and we fumble through these situations, not because we don’t want to tell the truth--we just don’t have truth to tell; because we haven’t adequately organised our minds. We haven’t taken the time (yet) to sort fact from fiction, based in reason and reflection. (This is a separation of factual truth from moral truth, as moral truth (at least in this context) is instinctual, whereas factual truth relies on data, and the recall of it--this is often implicit of considered thought, though moral reasoning is involved.)

Implaining is one way toward organising our truthful selves. It is complemented via the art of journaling.

At the very least, the word implain creates a relationship with the word explain, much like for the words: explode, implode, expel and impel.

Copyright © 2009, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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ENDNOTES:
[1] “implode” and “explode.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009. Merriam-Webster Online. 22 May 2009.
[2] “explain.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009. Merriam-Webster Online. 22 May 2009.
[3] Implanation: a process by which we consider concepts and reason, and in that process, create attributions from our internal deliberations; this can happen both subconsciously and consciously.