In the beginning was the repetition

In the beginning, then, was not the 'word' but the repetition. 

Meaning is a matter of difference, surely this is the case, then there could have been no primordial word, since one word already implies another.

And as Wittgenstein muses, it is difficult to imagine an origin without feeling that you could always go back beyond it. 

all words are stand-ins for other words, and all our language is filched and forged, reach-me-down rather than bespoke.