On Preservation

According to Wikipedia, a polyseme is "a word or phrase with multiple, related meanings." I recently heard a lecture in which the speaker argued that polysemy should be eliminated. This is perhaps, even above rudeness to one's friends, the cardinal sin in my eyes. This is applying an enlightenment scheme of the possibility of unbiased knowledge to language. Language, which offers, particularly through poetry, a mystical and mythical way to get at being. The layers of language and the etymology of words bring a richness to meaning and don't just clutter and confuse.