What Does hold Mean
Stop is a verb that comes from the Latin detentāre . The action of holding consists of appropriating something illegitimately , retaining it and making a use that does not correspond to the person in question.
Although that is the correct definition of the term according to the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) , it is common to find another use of the concept, especially in the media.
In this sense, many people use the verb to hold as a synonym for show , exercise or similar actions. For example: "The midfielder was proud to hold the captain's belt" , "Gómez will be the one who holds the management of the new office . " The appropriate thing, however, would be to express himself as follows: "The midfielder was proud to wear the captain's tape" , "Gómez will be the one who exercises the direction of the new office . "
The notion of holding, therefore, should be limited to naming the actions of whoever accesses a power , position or privilege by using force or another illegitimate mechanism: “The armed forces have held power since 1987, when they overthrew the constitutional president ” , “ The management of the club is held by someone who made fraud to be the winner in the last elections ” .
These assessments allow us to affirm that a government elected democratically and in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution does not hold office. This verb should be limited to those who come to power through a coup , a revolution or other mechanism not contemplated by the legislation.
The incorrect use of this term goes so far as to acquire the completely opposite meaning, that is, "to exercise a position or power that has been legitimately promoted." Something similar can happen with words such as should and have , which generate a lot of confusion in everyday speech for people outside the economy, in particular because their meanings are relative: the goods to which they refer depend on who is speaking.
But it is still curious that popular language leads a word to its opposite meaning. This shows us the weight that customs have in shaping culture , even when it comes to those that deform or degrade the pillars on which they rest. The academies of the language do not usually go against these incorrect uses, but adapt to them; And it is in this way that little by little our language accepts terms such as "yin" instead of its English version "jean" or the absence of an accent in the adverb "only", generating great confusion for those who use it correctly.
Among the most common synonyms of the verb to hold we can mention the following: usurp, appropriate and retain . There are others, some of which are less explicit, as with the word get , since it does not express the illicit nature with which it is carried out. Throughout the centuries, many rulers reached their position of power through imposition, using military forces to generate fear in the opposition and thus wrote the bloodiest pages in human history .
We must emphasize that the human being is the only species that uses "artificial" resources to climb its social hierarchy : the rest of the animals must give proof of their superiority to become leaders, and it is in this way that their communities are assured future, because they are always guided by the most suitable individual, the strongest, the most intuitive, the one who can make the best decisions for the good of the group. To hold a position, on the other hand, you do not need any positive quality, and clearly it is not done thinking about the common good but about personal interests.