Wow! You folks raise a hi-bar challenge. You Pooh-bahs, Honorable Old Hands,and Veteran Exalted Members of the Grand Lodge ask that we of unproven mettle...
(1) Explain the origin of God and the Universe.
(2) Solve the mystery of the rise of language.
(3) Speculate on the the progenitor of the word "word".
...all within the confines of an email reply, but what the heck, thats no hill for a stepper, so here goes...
(1) IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD. AND THE WORD WAS WITH GOD. AND THE WORD WAS GOD. I find this phrase foremost of the two most intriging concepts in the Bible. Bobyoungbalt notwithstanding, the semantics of "word" in this context seems not to denote "communication" as communication requires two entities, but it might convey a semblance of meaning to a band of wandering Jews bereft of prissy words like "process". "Process" seems to fit although it smarts of Determinism. The other phrase I find so fascinating in the Bible is...***AND IN THOSE DAYS GIANTS INHABITED THE EARTH. THESE WERE THE MEN OF OLD, THE MEN OF RENOWN.***...but to date no one has asked me for an opinion on this dramatic pronounsement.
(2)The rise and fall of language: This one is easy. I will present the answer in a single sentence...***WORDS HAVE NO MEANING, THEY ONLY HAVE FUNCTION***This being true it becomes obvious that I can't explain this by using a logical sequence of words so I have perfected a method I call "concept grouping" designed to transfer information and get the transferee to shout "Ah-ha!", as follows...
...No two objects in the Universe are identical.
...Words are abstracted from the oneness of the Universe.
...Words are as concrete as ,well, concrete.
...( __ ___ ) fill in the blank with Ah-ha!.
(3) Speculation on the word "word": The word "word" is a high level abstraction that came relatively late in the evolution of human speech, likely the whr, wrr, wor, sounds were imitative of the wind of air as it rushed from the throat.As heartless evolution enriched the language of primative man, his estrangement from wordless, mindless, Nature became more complete. As time passed only magical words and arcane chants could conjure up the fading memories of the ignorant, less vocal, and happy times. Are there any magical words in our world today that resonate back to the days when mankind was ignorant and happy? The answer is yes if one knows how to recognize these words. I do and below are the results of my study...
The year is 1957: A brand new street wine is introduced to the street running public. Forty-five years before Whitman O'Niel asked his famous email question, the question was asked and answered in this clever, layered meaning, advertisment...
What's the word? Thunderbird.
What's the price? Forty twice.*
How's it taste? Mighty nice.

*(For you the unhip, Forty twice is eighty cents.)

The year is 1968: A new song is making the rounds. The lyrics are simple but somehow profound...
Bird,bird,bird, bir-bir-bir-bir.
Now don't you know about the bird ?
Everybody knows that the bird is the word.
Word,word,word, wor-wor-wor-wor.
(Repeat seven times until end.)

The year is 1998: A hip hop hit is making the rounds entitled "Word Up". The accompanying lyrics are meaningless except to the cognoscenti. "Jive Talk", you see, only has value if there are no concrete referants. In fact,in Birmingham, Alabama "Word up" was found to too wordy so the cognoscenti greeted each other with simply..."Word, Brother".
So in the spirit of magical words and koans, I will end this email in summary of evervthing said and everything that could be said by saying simply..."WORD" And I hope I have had the final word.