I just read yet another MLM-related blog post that talks about how you should “edify your upline” when talking about them to your prospects. This seems to be a peculiarly-US interpretation of the verb “to edify” — or is it just peculiar to people in network marketing?

First clue: “to edify” someone does NOT mean to “glorify, extol, exalt, worship, revere, reverence, venerate, pay homage to, honour, adore, thank, give thanks to, laud, magnify, ennoble, elevate, dignify, enhance, augment, promote, praise, celebrate, lionize, acclaim, applaud, hail, glamourize, idealize, romanticize, enshrine, immortalize” or any similar expression.

Second clue: “to edify” actually means to “educate, instruct, teach, school, tutor, train, guide; enlighten, inform, cultivate, develop, improve, better, uplift, inspire” or similar.

Does that sound like something you’d try to do to your upline? Or that they’re likely to appreciate from you?

So how did this distortion of the real meaning come about?

I can find no definitive explanation, but there are some clues, such as this one: in Latin, the original meaning was “to build up”. Hence terms like “edifice” (a building). In reference to people, the meaning was to build up your audience in terms of enlightenment, insight, understanding and generally to raise their awareness and perceptions of the topic under discussion. In other words, to lift them higher so that they could see the bigger picture, and become enlightened and inspired.

But somehow, whether by misperception or deliberate distortion, the meaning became twisted to mean “building up” a person in the eyes of others so that they became “glorified, extolled, exalted, worshipped, revered, reverenced, venerated, paid homage to, honoured, adored, thanked, given thanks to, lauded, magnified, ennobled, elevated, dignified, enhanced, augmented, promoted, praised, celebrated, lionized, acclaimed, applauded, hailed, glamourized, idealized, romanticized, enshrined, immortalized” etc.

In other words, instead of the leader actually doing the edifying (of their followers), they became the object of “glorification” etc.

Does that sound familiar to you? Does it make you wonder how that “mistake” came about?

Are there other words that could be applicable here, such as “self-aggrandizement” (the action or process of promoting oneself as being powerful or important)? Or did someone misread or misspell “edification” as “deification“? (From deify — verb: worship, regard, or treat (someone or something) as a god : she was deified by the early Romans as a fertility goddess.

So can we please get the REAL meaning of this verb right, so that we no longer paint ourselves publicly as either illiterate or ignorant (if we don’t know the correct meaning) or deliberately deceptive (if we do know)?