We all have dreams. They are our hopes and aspirations. We all dream of something, whether it be growing up to be rich and famous, marrying that one person of our dreams, or anything else we wish to accomplish. Dreams are the pleasant images that pass through our mind during slumber. The bottom line is we all have dreams and one day we hope to accomplish them
For the most part, people believe the cliche that dreams do come true. Obviously everyone wants their dreams to come true, because we have this impression that dreams are supposed to be these wonderful and magical visions. When we have a bad dream, we give it a totally different name, we call it a nightmare. When we have a good dream, we do not have a separate name for that. So this gives dreams a positive connotation. Most people are fine with this, and do not think anything of it. The etymology of the word actually means something quite different. The word dream originates from a German word, which actually means to deceive or delude. It also has to do with ghost or apparition. Somewhere along the way the word changed from something that had negative connotation to a more peaceful and happy word.
I do not believe that the phrase dream should keep its positive association without having some negative side. What I find very strange is, the meaning of the German word that dream derives from is not found in any English dictionary today. It can only be found when searching for the etymology of the word. So dream used to have a semi-negative connotation and now it is very positive.
I believe that the meaning of the word dream should not have been changed. It makes sense, dreams are something that is delusions. In reality, most dreams do not come true. Yet we are raised to believe if you want it bad enough it will come. In my opinion that is bullshit. I’ve had many realistic dreams, and worked hard at them, but most of the time nothing comes from them. But I never really believed the notion that dreams come true. I also see dreams as more of a fantasy world, something that allows you to escape everyday life and have your own utopia for the time. The only downside is that when you wakeup, whatever pleasant feelings you experienced, have totally vanished. So to me dreams are sort of a way of teasing people. You have all these wonderful images racing through your head, and they feel so realistic. Then you have to wake up, and everything is gone, leaving you depressed and yearning for what you had last.
I think that we should totally change the meaning of the word dream. It should be a blend of what the original word meant, with the new age definition. It should mean something like wonderful delusions. They are delusions that have positive themes to them, but of course, the delusions with negative themes gets its own negative word; nightmares.
The verb dream does not differ as much from the original word as the noun. It is simple, it is to have visions or images in ones sleep. From this, we cannot determine if the definition is negative or positive. Yet still it does not mention any form of words that would give it a negative connotation such as delusions or deceive. When we dream, we are deceiving ourselves, well our mind is at least, because we cannot consciously determine what we will dream about. Sleep is a time when our mind plays tricks on us, it shows us images that we desire. Or if it is a nightmare it shows us images that we dread and makes us hate those images even more. When we do have a positive dream though, it is usually about someone or something that we really long for. So in a sense our mind is only letting us have a small taste of what we really want, when in fact we cannot have it at all, most of the time. So I believe the verb to dream should definitely have more to do with negative terms like deception and delusion rather than just images. Yes, we do see images, but that is too vague of a word to use.
Often when we want something we cannot have, someone will use the expression “in your dreams.” This expression is just an example of how the term dream is not a happy word. The person who uses that term is implying whatever the other person said or wanted will never happen, except in their dreams. How is that positive at all? The answer is that it is not possible. It is actually used in an insulting way. Yet the term dreams do not have the same negative meaning. Or when someone has something happen to them and they cannot believe it, they will say “not in my wildest dreams.” This term implies that they never imagined that an event of that magnitude could occur, not even in their dreams where almost anything is possible. In my opinion, the verb dream should definitely include either something about our mind playing tricks on us, something about deceiving or about delusion. Because when we dream we see and believe things that are not truthful and that is pretty much what delusions and deceptions are; they are believing what is false.
So, dreams are wonderful things, and everyone needs to have them, because they are healthy and they give us hope. But we should not be raised believing they are completely wonderful things, because they are not. It is quite strange a word would derive from a word that used to mean something quite negative, if it was meant to be a positive word? There is no reason except for the fact that somewhere along the line, the phrase was misconstrued.
