Imagination

The reason I chose imagination as my word to research is because I think that throughout time there isn't a significant change in the definition of the word.  But, the way in which it was used may be something completely different than what I have seen before.  Obviously, the words imagination and image are connected, and I wonder if people many years before us noticed that there was this connection in the ways that each word was used.  Today, you don't have to know either word and there is a clear association between the two.  Also, I want to figure out if there was an abstract use of imagination or if it was literal.  Imagination for me means the creation of something in the mind.  Whether it be an actual "nation of images" in your mind, or an idea (abstract or not).  As long as there is the element of creation in the mind, that is what imagination means to me.