Sharing

as 'action to make mutual'

Morphological analysis

• Etymon: The word sharing derives from Old English, Latin sċearu meaning 'divide '.
• Morpheme breakdown: Old English sċearu: 'divide' + Latin suffix -ing: 'action to' → 'action to make mutual'.
• Functional cognate: Mutualizing: 'action to make mutual'

Essential definition

'action to make mutual'

Semantic context

• Conventional sense: To divide and distribute a portion of something to others, or to allow others to use something that one possesses.
• Essential meaning (my usage): action to make mutual

Philosophical significance

This framework reveals sharing as the fundamental mechanism of empowerment and cultural resilience. By defining it as the lossless 'action to make mutual', it becomes the act of granting autonomy (emancipation from dependency) and ensuring the continuity of capability (creating systemic redundancy). It transforms sharing from simple altruism into the very engine of collective survival and growth, where the ultimate shared good is the capacity for self-sufficiency itself.

Usage in this lexicon

When I use the word sharing in my work, I mean exactly 'action to make mutual' i.e. lossless transmission. This definition:

• identifies sharing as the engine of human progress: the mechanism that allows each generation to inherit the solved problems of the past, freeing effort for new ones;
• exposes our conventional view of sharing as a tragic misdiagnosis, one that focuses on the division of finite ends (resources) and blinds us to the multiplication of infinite means (knowledge, methods, capability) that actually drives human advancement;
• posits that the ultimate act of power and liberation is teaching—transferring the capacity for self-sufficiency, which frees both sharer from perpetual obligation and recipient from perpetual dependence;
• establishes that true responsibility: 'ability to respond' is built on shared know-how; we cannot ethically hold others accountable for what they lack capacity to do, making the sharing of capability the primary moral act of an interdependent society.
• defines the moral limit of obligation: once the capacity (know-how) is shared, responsibility transfers from the sharer of the know-how to the individual who now possesses it.

Related term

• Consciousness

Sources

• Wiktionary

*This definition follows morphological essentialism principles. See the Methodology for details.