Polysemy is a wonderful word, a real 25-center. It means “diversity of meanings,” and “having or characterized by many meanings.”

A lot of words and symbols are highly polysemous. They mean different things to different people. The word “love,” for example, is defined so many different ways by so many different people that its meaning is just a vague cloud – but it’s very clear to the various people who have their own definition of it.

The American flag, though apparently a clear-cut symbol, is just as polysemous. To the Mayflower descendent it means one thing, a recent immigrant sees it differently, and a Native American Indian likely brings yet another set of eyes to it.

We humans are abstract creatures. In our view, virtually everything is polysemous.