Wow, check out this relic! Man was I ever arrogant!

It’s a curious word, I will admit. And nevermind that you can’t look it up at Merriam-Webster Online. Don’t focus on that if you dissect it in attempt to uncover some etymology that there really isn’t any. Sure it looks a lot like the word “Relevance” without an “R” and yeah, since you’re interested, that is part of how I derived it but that reveals little about the nature of the word in question. You might also know that nouns sometimes end in “vance” or even that other nouns end in “ation” like “Elevation.”

Actually, you might be on to something there, as I was myself considering the nature of that word when I contrived the word in question. But there’s something different about the two of them. In some manner other than spelling Elevance is distinguished from “Elevation.” Yes, now you see. If the meanings of these two words had something in common clearly it would be that idea of getting higher. And if we took the right meaning of “Elevation,” we could appreciate not the mechanism of physically ascending so much as that there is ascent.

Here’s where Elevance really makes a place for itself. If they both have that common definition of ascent then what separates them?

If you look above you would see thatElevance appears larger than “Elevation,” would you disagree? So the word in question is bigger in nature than its cousin. Hold now, for a moment and let us contemplate that as it struck me, and I’m certain you, my clever reader, as a bit odd. How can a word be larger than another word?

They can’t! Words don’t have any physical existence! All that you are reading are pixels, configurations of data that your brain interprets to represent an idea with which it is familiar.

Yes, words are instances or illustrations of ideas. And surely we couldn’t physically squeeze the meaning of an idea out of a word, especially not Elevance so let us agree that it is isn’t something physical at all. It’s beyond physical–metaphysical (say it with me). Understanding this nature of words and ideas might help us to understand the word in question now. So let us stay focussed and keen on the difference between it and “Elevation.”

Were you thinking that maybeElevance means some kind of metaphysical ascent? I thought you might be. I tell everyone I have the best readers. I really do.

So, if Elevance is metaphysical, then “Elevation” might be physical. That seems consistent with its meaning to me, wouldn’t you agree? I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have even asked (I don’t deserve you).

metaphysical ascent. now there’s a curious idea.

Without space, without up or down or north or south how can you get higher? What would ascent mean in this case. How could we explain that and make it compatible with everything we accept as truth?

what if you made up a word. . .

“It is often forgotten that (dictionaries) are artificial
repositories, put together well after the languages they
define. The roots of language are irrational and of a
magical nature.”
-Jorge Luis Borges, Prologue to “El otro, el mismo.”