Semantics are everything

I once read a quote that goes something like this : Wild horses will not be able to catch hurtful words once they have been spoken. I don’t remember who said it and there’s a good chance that it’s not properly quoted either (apologies to the quotee*).

In any event, the point of using that quote is to explain that words are everything. People often dismiss what someone else is saying because they’re using different words to theirs and they say, “It’s just semantics!”

Well, it’s not just semantics. Words carry meaning beyond that ascribed in the dictionary. Each person interprets words differently, and give them different meaning.