Work
Dignity, identity, value, and exploitation, any or all of the above.
How We Say It
wurk
Where It Comes From
Old English weorc — something done, labor, deed. Proto-Germanic. Related to the Greek ergon — work, deed (as in energy). Among the oldest words in the language — work needed naming before almost everything else.
How It's Been Used
'Hard work' is the foundational myth of American meritocracy — success is the reward for effort. The phrase functions to explain inequality as deserved outcome. The distinction between work (any human activity) and labor (work sold for wages) is made in Marxist theory and regularly collapsed in political speech.