In this essay, I intend to examine a brief etymology of the word issue, using the Oxford English Dictionary. My goal is to provide alternative interpretations to the following line from King Lear, uttered by Kent: “I cannot wish the error to be undone, the matter of it/ being so corrected” (1.1.16). The fault, or injury, mentioned by Kent is Edmund's illegitimate birth. I therefore argue that alternative interpretations, derived from various resonances of the question of the word, demonstrate Shakespeare's deliberate choice of the word to set up the play as a tragedy of masculinity, in which the absence of a maternal figure causes a lack of counterbalance to male authority. Kent refers to Edmund himself as a “trouble” (1.1.16). Here, the matter retains its third Oxford English Dictionary definition (see notation in text) meaning (3) (formal or legal) one's own children. Although illegitimate, Edmund is Gloucester's son. Other meanings of the word issue include: (1) a topic or issue important for debate or discussion, (2) the action of providing or distributing an item for official use, sale, or purposes, (4) (Middle English, from Old French) the action of flowing or going out and (5) (dated) a result or outcome of something ("Problem"). Combining some of these definitions gives us alternative interpretations to what Kent is saying in the quote mentioned above. First, the main sense of the word issue, (1) a topic or problem important for debate or discussion, together with (3) and (5) above, provides one of these interpretations: the child himself, i.e. Edmund, it will be a problem for the parent. King Lear cites three examples of children who play the part of those who love their loved ones, but who also represent their parents' real problems. All three children – Edmund, Goneril and Regan – … in the center of the sheet … deem it appropriate. We see through Goneril and Regan's selfish actions (including each other's pursuit of extramarital affairs) that they resemble their father. In this sense, one reading of Cordelia is that she is too proudly attached to her principles, as stubborn as her father in refusing to give up while losing everything. Although this interpretation describes the children as extensions of their parents, it actually describes them as extensions of their fathers (since there are no mothers in the play). Once again, fathers influence what their children will become; and most children fall prey to the tragedy of masculinity. If the children had had a mother figure, the outcome of the show would have been different. Even Lear, who knows that his days are numbered, seeks a maternal figure to nurse him. Old age is like a return to childhood and he also calls his mother, who is absent..