Who could have thought one small four letter word can seem so innocent yet be so dangerous? Everyday we use the word “hate” for almost everything. But what does it actually mean? Hate is a verb meaning “a feeling of intense or passionate dislike for someone or something.”

People often use the word hate in terms of saying, “I hate pickles” but hate means so much more. Hate is not only a word that people use to describe how much they don’t like something or someone but it is also a feeling. Put to the test, people find they don’t actually hate anything but they do not like things such as foods or actions. 

After interviewing people most of the answers reflect their personalities. When asked what it means the most common answer was similar to Tyler Gitto’s response, “To have extreme feelings against something or ideas of something of negative.”

If someone walked up to their friend and said, “I absolutely hate when…” that doesn’t actually mean they hate what’s being talked about it just means they really don’t like it. Is the way people use the word hate changing the meaning? Or is the word not as bad as it actually seems? 

Hate is more than a word or action. It is an emotion. Tyler Damoth said, “ You don’t know hate until you know love.” Love and hate are such strong emotions that people can forget how much they mean. Loving someone or something means there is a bond that will never be broken. So you can’t really love someone without all the problems and pain. But with hate it usually starts off with getting hurt by some one who said they loved you or stab you in the back when they told you that you can trust them. All the pain that you feel from this suffering will eventually turn to anger or hate. Tyler also said, “Pain leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.” You can’t truly hate until you go through something that shows you the confusing feelings of hate.

Hate is also a crime.  It is not the crime itself that would be hate, it is the action being taken when the crime is committed. People doing things out of anger or pain and people often mistake this anger and pain to be hate. But it might not be hate that the person is doing. They could be doing this out of spite, pity, or hurt. 

Hate and hurt can often be mistaken. Someone could have done something  to hurt someone close and that could cause the person to resent or be angry at the other. But this does not necessarily mean they hate them. 

The word hate is used in so many ways but yet most of the ways it is being used is the wrong ways. Hate cannot be a crime as to an action that was taken in replace. To say “I hate peppers” would be the wrong way to use the word in replace you would say “I don’t like peppers.” Hate is such a big word and people use it in replace of don’t like or dislike to make the sentence sound better to them. But in reality hate is too big of a word to have a definition. 

Hate is an emotion, a feeling that people will get and no one really knows this feeling unless something happens that it springs to life. Once you get the feeling and emotion of hate you realize, Oh this is what it’s like to actually hate.  Hate is something you will carry with you for the rest of your life. So I’m asking you, do you really hate?