Words that have changed their meaning over time.

[lcorinth]

A recent one...

[video=youtube;0rYT0YvQ3hs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rYT0YvQ3hs"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rYT0YvQ3hs[/video]

 

[gna]

Supposedly, King James II referred to Christopher Wren's St. Paul's as "amusing, awful, and artificial." It was meant as a compliment, as the cathedral was a pleasing work, awe-inspiring, and artistic.

 

[Larry Curcio]

A recent one...

[video=youtube;0rYT0YvQ3hs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rYT0YvQ3hs"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rYT0YvQ3hs[/video]

Awesome!

-Larry (Somebody had to say it) C.

 

[KenRico]

Maybe this is how the meaning of words change; people just get lazy or confused with proper usage. I agree with you that gender is the better word to use.

Another one is nationality. I am a U.S. citizen; that's my nationality. Now my heritage is Dutch (father's side) and Polish (mother's side). I suppose you could argue that I am only 1/4th Polish with the other 1/4th being German. You see, my grandfather was born during one of those times when the Germans were... ahem, "visiting" Poland as they seem to do every 20 or 30 years.

Ha, very cool ! I am double Dutch .. Father is Harkema , and mother is Van Pelt .


Kenny

 

[Bat-mite]

A lot of the weird spellings in English come from a time when it was fashionable to make words look Greek! Seriously! For instance, flem became phlegm, just because it looked Greek.

 

[soopirV]

I'm irked by the improper but prevalent usage of the word "decimate"...it is supposed to mean to reduce by 1/10th...now it means to destroy nearly completely. Shows that language is fluid and plastic, and that words are meaningless without context. As we give them new context or modify their meaning (whether through laziness or ignorance or...) the language changes. Really kinda beautiful, when I think about it. Thanks for the thought provoking topic!

 

[Larry Curcio]

In America, 1000,000,000 is a Billion. In England, this number is a Milliard - as it is in French. In German it's a Milliarde. In Italian it's a Miliardo.

That changes everything thenceforth. What a US citizen calls a Trillion is a Billion to everyone else and so on.

That's my own pet peeve...

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

In America, 1000,000,000 is a Billion. In England, this number is a Milliard - as it is in French. In German it's a Milliarde. In Italian it's a Miliardo.

That changes everything thenceforth. What a US citizen calls a Trillion is a Billion to everyone else and so on.

That's my own pet peeve...

But no matter where you go, a Bazillion is understood to be a crapload.

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

Literally is literally changing to figuratively as we speak.

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

A lot of the weird spellings in English come from a time when it was fashionable to make words look Greek! Seriously! For instance, flem became phlegm, just because it looked Greek.

Why are the people of Flanders said to be phlegmish?

 

[Bat-mite]

Literally is literally changing to figuratively as we speak.

Ugh, I always scowl at that one. I always hear people say, "That literally blew my mind!"

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

Ugh, I always scowl at that one. I always hear people say, "That literally blew my mind!"

When you hear that, you expect to actually see the person's head explode, which would be a real treat in most cases.

 

[Larry Curcio]

A recent one...

[video=youtube;0rYT0YvQ3hs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rYT0YvQ3hs"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rYT0YvQ3hs[/video]

Everyone complains about the word, awesome, but no one complains about the word, awful. Awful used to mean what the word, awesome, used to mean, but today it means… well… awful. So they invented another word to mean what awful used to mean, and that word was awesome.

Like awesome, Awful’s meaning was changed because it had become more useful as an exaggeration than as a real word. So… maybe it’s the fate of any word you assign to the original meaning to have its meaning changed.


-Larry (BTW, Thanks! IMHO, Eddy Izzard is awesome!) C.

 

[Bat-mite]

A pastor I know used to say goodbye to people by saying, "Have an awful day!" Because he was German, and English was his second language, they would smile and say, "I think you mean awesome." And he would reply, "Not just some awe. Full of awe."

There is an old hymn we sing sometimes, about heaven, called "How Sweet and Awful Is the Place." Usually brings a chuckle.