what are some words that have evolved to be something offensive
Words change meaning all the time — and over fourth dimension. Linguistic communication historian Anne Curzan takes a closer look at this miracle, and shares some words that used to mean something totally unlike.
Words change significant over time in ways that might surprise y'all. Nosotros sometimes notice words changing pregnant under our noses (e.g., unique coming to mean "very unusual" rather than "1 of a kind") — and it tin can exist disconcerting. How in the world are we all going to communicate effectively if we let words to shift in significant like that?
The good news: History tells united states that nosotros'll be fine. Words have been changing meaning — sometimes radically — as long as there have been words and speakers to speak them. Here is just a small-scale sampling of words you may not take realized didn't ever hateful what they mean today.
- Prissy: This discussion used to mean "silly, foolish, simple." Far from the compliment it is today!
- Silly: Meanwhile,airheaded went in the reverse management: in its primeval uses, it referred to things worthy or blessed; from there it came to refer to the weak and vulnerable, and more than recently to those who are foolish.
- Awful: Awful things used to be "worthy of awe" for a variety of reasons, which is how we get expressions like "the awful majesty of God."
- Fizzle: The verb fizzle once referred to the act of producing quiet flatulence (think "SBD"); American higher slang flipped the word's significant to refer to failing at things.
- Wench: A shortened form of the Old English discussion wenchel (which referred to children of either sexual practice), the word wench used to hateful "female child" before it came to be used to refer to female servants — and more pejoratively to wanton women.
- Fathom: It can be hard to fathom how this verb moved from pregnant "to encircle with one's arms" to significant "to understand afterward much thought." Here'southward the scoop: One'southward outstretched arms tin be used as a measurement (a fathom), and once you accept fathoms, yous can apply a fathom line to measure the depth of water. Retrieve metaphorically and fathoming becomes about getting to the bottom of things.
- Inkling: Centuries agone, a clue (or clew) was a brawl of yarn. Think about threading your way through a maze and y'all'll see how we got from yarn to key bits of bear witness that aid us solve things.
- Myriad: If you had a myriad of things 600 years agone, it meant that you specifically had 10,000 of them — not just a lot.
- Naughty: Long ago, if you were naughty, you had naught or naught. Then information technology came to hateful evil or immoral, and now you lot are but badly behaved.
- Eerie: Before the word eerie described things that inspire fright, it used to describe people feeling fear — every bit in one could experience faint and eerie.
- Spinster: As information technology sounds, spinsters used to exist women who spun. It referred to a legal occupation before it came to mean "unmarried adult female" — and frequently not in the most positive ways, as opposed to a bachelor …
- Bachelor: A bachelor was a immature knight before the word came to refer to someone who had accomplished the lowest rank at a academy — and it lives on in that pregnant in today'south B.A. and B.S degrees. It'southward been used for single men since Chaucer's twenty-four hour period.
- Flirt: Some 500 years ago, flirting was flicking something away or flicking open a fan or otherwise making a brisk or jerky motion. Now it involves playing with people'southward emotions (sometimes it may experience similar your heart is getting jerked around in the procedure).
- Guy: This word is an eponym. It comes from the proper noun of Guy Fawkes, who was part of a failed attempt to accident up Parliament in 1605. Folks used to burn down his effigy, a "Guy Fawkes" or a "guy," and from in that location it came to refer to a frightful figure. In the U.S., it has come to refer to men in general.
- Hussy: Believe it or not, hussy comes from the word housewife (with several sound changes, clearly) and used to refer to the mistress of a household, not the disreputable woman information technology refers to today.
- Egregious: It used to be possible for information technology to be a good thing to exist egregious: information technology meant you lot were distinguished or eminent. Merely in the stop, the negative meaning of the word won out, and now information technology means that someone or something is conspicuously bad — not conspicuously good.
- Quell: Quelling something or someone used to mean killing it, not just subduing information technology.
- Divest: 300 years ago, divesting could involve undressing also as depriving others of their rights or possessions. It has only recently come to refer to selling off investments.
- Senile: Senile used to refer simply to annihilation related to quondam historic period, so you could have senile maturity. Now it refers specifically to those suffering from senile dementia.
- Meat: Have you lot e'er wondered about the expression "meat and drink"? It comes from an older meaning of the word meat that refers to nutrient in general — solid food of a variety of kinds (not just creature flesh), as opposed to drink.
Nosotros're human. We beloved to play with words in creative ways. And in the process, nosotros change the linguistic communication. In retrospect, we often think the changes words undergo are fascinating. May we transfer some of that fascination and wonder — some of the awe that used to make the words awful and awesome synonymous — to the changes we're witnessing today.
Watch Anne Curzan's TED Talk to find out what makes a discussion "existent".
Source: https://ideas.ted.com/20-words-that-once-meant-something-very-different/
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