Void

By Neity Prasad

Void: A gaping presence. The presence of something which isn't exactly present. Often felt more fiercely than something that does have a materialistic presence.

If a void was to be viewed the way we look at numbers, would it be 0, or negative infinity?

The word “void” itself comes from the term "viude" meaning empty, vast, wide, hollow, waste, opening et cetra. It is funny how if we look closer, each of these terms contradicts the other. But together, they do perfectly describe the idea of a void.

If you dig deeper, back to the very origin of the word, you will find the term "wak": the extended form of the root "eue" which means to leave, abandon, give out.

This reminds me of a very similar and peculiar word: avoid. the more you look at it, the funnier it gets: avoid is basically a void, without a void.

See: a void

avoid

Now if we think about the term devoid: it has the prefix "de", which means "away" or "out". The word starts to make less sense once you question: how do you take something out from a void, which in itself is nothing?

Maybe devoid is what completely explains 0- lacking everything and nothing at the same time.

I think what's needed to devoid, is to avoid. If you start avoiding a void, you become devoid of it.

A void by itself, I believe, is never empty. It is avoidance that makes a void bleak, lacking and empty.