Please don't overstand

I have been thinking about the word understand. What does it mean, exactly? I mean, it clearly means to comprehend. But why do we say "I understand?" What exactly do we stand under? I suppose if we are "catching" someone's meaning it might be more easily caught if we stood directly under it. Much like a fly ball. Or if they were dangling precariously from a window or tree we might stand under them to catch them as they fall. This example seems a little more fitting since most of the time when someone is trying to explain themselves they seem to be going out on a limb.

The problem with this "understanding" of the term understand is it kind of presumes that you are about to catch them. But the word "understand" means that you have already caught them.

I looked up the word at www.dictionary.com. They didn't help much. It seems that no one really knows why we say I understand. Their best guess was that it really means to stand "with" them. Kind of like saying, "I'm with you." So somehow to understand really means to "stand along with." I will grant you that "I understand" is a much easier turn of phrase than, "I stand along side you" or "I'm standing with you."

Whatever. In my musing about the word understand I have created a new word:

OVERSTAND - to not understand.

Here I will use it in a sentence:

After much study I have decided that I overstand the etymology of the word understand.




Resumes Sent: 4
Stories Sent: 3
This week I sent Rumplestiltskin to Fantasy Magazine.
However, I had to deduct a story from Stories Sent because one of my previously sent stories was returned to me unopened. Frustrating.
Stories Rejected: 3