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Extended Definition Of Success Essay

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There are always two parts to a definition of a word. One is what society as a whole develops to be the definition and the other is what you yourself think the definition of the word is. With the word success deriving all the way, back to the sixteenth century, from the Latin word successus with the meaning at time being “come close after.” We can all agree that the word has come a long way and has dramatically changed throughout the years, picking up a couple words along the way and also dropping a few. According to Merriam Webster success is defined as, “the fact of getting or achieving wealth, respect, or fame”, or as Oxford Dictionary defines it as “the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.” With that being said Oxford says you must accomplish …show more content…

Success has changed from having one meal a day, roof over our heads, enough clothes to cover the parts we need, and enough supplies to last until the end of that day. To having luxurious automobiles, humongous house, flashy items, gaining popularity and useless items to show off to others or whatever one may consider to be in their definition of success. People now days think success is all about how much wealth they possess or how much materialistic things they have, failing to realize that success can also be defined as something intangible. Intangible success holds the same amount of weight that tangible success does. What makes it different are what we our self-pick and choose to weigh harder. An example of this is a recent football player who just signed a fifty-two million dollar contract for one year. While interviewing the players he states,” Being successful is having the money I do, and the fame I possess.” On the other hand, an eighty six year old woman just quits smoking cigarettes and she herself considers herself successful for doing so. Who is really the successful one? According to Merriam Webster, the football player is successful and according to Oxford, the old woman is

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