meaningsoup

meaningsoup is a term that describes a colloquial and informal approach to understanding or defining something. It suggests a process of gathering various interpretations, ideas, or components and blending them together to form a general or emergent meaning. This is often done in casual conversation or informal writing, where precision is not the primary goal.

The concept of "meaningsoup" implies that the resulting understanding might not be perfectly coherent or rigidly defined. Instead, it is a flexible and evolving construct. It can arise when individuals are trying to make sense of a complex topic, a new concept, or a situation where established definitions are lacking or insufficient. The "soup" metaphor highlights the additive and often messy nature of this meaning-making process.

In practice, someone might refer to "meaningsoup" when discussing how different people's perspectives contribute to a shared, albeit loose, understanding of a word, phrase, or idea. It can also be used humorously to describe an attempt to explain something that has resulted in a muddled or overly complicated explanation. The term is not a formal linguistic or philosophical term but rather a descriptive phrase used in everyday language.