Original Definition:
sweetheart, darling — used of either sex
Example:
«I kiss his dirty shoe, and from heart-string I love the lovely bully. What is thy name?» — William Shakespeare, Henry V, 1600
About the Word:
The meaning of bully has been changing for almost five hundred years now, with the earliest evidence of the word dating back to the 1530s.
Along the path from heartthrob to harasser bully has also meant ‘a man of outstanding physical powers,’ ‘a hired ruffian,’ ‘the boss of a logging camp,’ ‘any of several blennioid fishes,’ and numerous other things.
-Ammon Shea
Original Definition:
marked by obedience
Example:
«[We] adore and worship thy majesty, and tremble at thy judgments and works, and therefore pray always that we may content with thy will, and be buxom and obedient thereto.» — Henry Bull, Christian Prayers and Meditations, 1566
About the Word:
Buxom is thought to have come from the Old English word bŪhsum, which shares a common ancestor with the Old English word bŪgan (meaning ‘to bend’).
In addition to its current primary meaning of ‘full-bosomed,’ buxom has at times in the past been used with such varied meanings as ‘physically flexible’ and ‘full of gaiety.’
Original Definition:
to remove from office
Example:
«And under this power are comprehended all the other rights and marks of soveraigntie … to proclaime warre, or to make peace: to take knowledge in the last appeale of the iudgments of all Magistrates: to appoint or to disappoint the greatest officers …» — Pierre de la Primaudaye (Translated by T. Bowes), The French Academy, 1586
About the Word:
It seems as though such a word should be quite simple; if you appoint a person to some position you can also disappoint them from it.
Yet the English language does not always work in a way that makes sense. Not only do words change meaning, but some of our prefixes do not always mean the same thing. For instance, dis- can mean ‘do the opposite of,’ as in disqualify, and also can mean ‘completely’ as in disannul.
It would certainly be pleasant if we could immediately disappoint those who disappoint us, but we generally have to wait for an election to do this.
Original Definition:
to break wind quietly
Example:
«But the false old trot did so fizzle and fist, that she stunk like a hundred devils, which put the poor fox to a great deal of ill ease, for he knew not to what side to turn himself, to escape the unsavoury perfume of this old womans postern blasts.» — François Rabelais (translated by Thomas Urquhart), Gargantua and Pantagruel, 1534
About the Word:
If you are in search of an accurate euphemism for a certain four-letter word, beginning with F, that designates an expulsive bodily function, look no further than fizzle.
For the first several hundred years that this word was in use as a verb in English (since 1533) it only referred to the act of passing wind silently. Fizzle did not begin to refer to making a sputtering sound until the 19th century, at which point the older meaning had, well, fizzled out.
Original Definition:
the internal parts of an animal: viscera
Example:
«Take white Pigeons, and fatten them with Pyneapple kernelles, the space of xv daies, and than kil them: and having cast away the head, the feete, and the guttes, with all the garbage, distill them in a limbecke …» — Girolamo Ruscelli (translated by W. Warde), The Secretes of the Reverende Maister Alexis of Piemount, 1558
About the Word:
Garbage is hardly the only food-related word to have taken on a meaning that is far afield from what it once was. Meat formerly was used to refer to food of any kind, and not just to the flesh of an animal. Also liquor was once used to refer to liquid of any sort, rather than to a substance that is productive of hangovers.
Original Definition:
lechery, lust
Example:
«What? shall we live like beasts promiscuously, Without distinction in foule luxurie?» — Juvenal (Translated by William Barkstead), That Which Seemes Best is Worst, 1617
About the Word:
The current meaning of luxury carries a far more positive connotation today than it did when it first entered the language (a process that linguists refer to as amelioration).
Luxurious likewise had a more negative meaning when it first entered the language (‘of, relating to, or expressive of especially unrestrained gratification of the senses’).
However luxuriant originally meant ‘productive,’ and luxuriate once meant ‘to grow profusely’.
Original Definition:
a ceremony attending the entering of Rome by a general who had won a victory of less importance than that for which a triumph was granted
Example:
«In ancient Rome an ovation was an inferior triumph accorded to victors in minor war or unimportant battle…. An enthusiastic demonstration in honor of an American civilian is nothing like that, and should not be called by its name.» — Ambrose Bierce, Write It Right, 1909
About the Word:
Some people are of the opinion that the word decimate should properly only be used to refer to a punishment or event in which every tenth person is killed, since that is how the word was used by the ancient Romans.
Strangely enough, very few of these people likewise insist that ovation should be held to the same standard.
And there are other English words that are descended from Latin words of greatly different meaning: century once referred to ‘a subdivision of the Roman legion,’ and libertine in ancient Rome was used to refer to a freed slave.
Original Definition:
democracy as a principle or a form of government
Example:
«For conceiving that the Prince my Father had usurped an Authority which did not belong unto him, and desiring to reduce the Government into a Popularity, and to prevent his Successors from raigning after him, see how they argued the matter amongst themselves.» — Madeleine de Scudéry (translated by F.G.), Artamenes, 1653
About the Word:
While the more cynical among us might argue that our current system of government is still largely based on popularity, it is a popularity that is a bit different from the original meaning of the word.
Popularity has been in use since at least 1546, the year in which the Bishop of Winchester used it in a letter to Lord Paget, writing of ‘an inclination they have to a popularity’. The letter is concerned with grave political matters of the time, and not with who is the most liked in the schoolyard.
Original Definition:
of, relating to, or marked by illusion, conjuring, or trickery
Example:
«That strumpet, that inchantresse, … has stolne faire Truths attire, Her crowne, her sweet songs, counterfets her voyce, And by prestigious tricks in sorcerie, Ha’s raiz’d a base impostor like Truths father.» — Thomas Dekker, The Whore of Babylon, 1607
About the Word:
Prestigious and prestige both come to English from the Latin word praestigiae, which meant ‘conjuror’s tricks.’
It’s not so difficult to see the connection there when bearing in mind that the word prestidigitation (‘sleight of hand’) has largely retained its original meaning.
Prestigious did not come to convey renown until the beginning of the 20th century.
Original Definition:
one entrusted with the secrets or confidences of a superior
Example:
«She writ to him discreetly the thoughts of her friend, leting him understand that she was the secretary; that she would serve him in all honest things he could desire.» — Francisco de Quintana, The History of Don Fenise, 1651
About the Word:
Many other words that have been formed through the addition of -ary (which comes from the Latin root -arius, meaning ‘from’) have managed to keep their roots and suffixes neatly tied together: beneficiary, constabulary, and planetary.
So it seems rather obvious, when looking at a word such as secretary, that its original meaning had something to do with secrets. Yet somewhere along the way the word slipped free of its moorings and took on a not terribly secret meaning.
И факт в том, что это слово для Джаббара имеет другое значение, потому что он черный.
So you said when we first met, but your reputation being what it is,
Вы так сказали при первой встрече, но, зная, что про вас говорят,
Third is in production when you actually get there and have to change everything and finally, in the edit,
В-третьих на производстве, когда вы действительно идете туда и вам надо изменить все, и наконец, в монтаже, когда вы понимаете, что то,
что вы считали что-то значило, означает нечто совершенно иное, когда вы ставите это до или после сопоставляющего или дополнительного кадра.».
Для себя я это объяснил как способ, занимаясь чем-то другим в жизни, оставаться при психологии.
Each of these norms meant something different to those who employed it and thus represented a
different
view of how to shape and manage the peasant economy,
and a
different
conception of the peasantry’s place in the Empire.
Каждый из этих терминов, в зависимости от того, кто их использовал, означал что-то различное, таким образом эти понятия представляли собой
различные
взгляды на формирование,
управление крестьянским хозяйством, и на понимание роли крестьянства в империи.
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English
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English
Language belongs to us and we do with it what we please. We invent new words, new spellings and sometimes whole new languages. When it comes to words, we decide what they mean and we change their meanings at will. That’s what English speakers did to the words below. They used to mean something then took a semantic detour. Let’s find them out.
Nice
This is a beautiful word. But it has not always been so. In fact, nice used to mean “silly, foolish, or simple” far from the compliment it is today.
Awful
When you deconstruct the word awful you get the meaning: “something worthy of awe.” And that’s what this word used to mean, not what it means today. Ever heard of “the awful majesty of God?”
Flirt
500 years ago, when you flirted with someone you flicked something away at them or you flick open a fan or otherwise make a brisk or jerky motion. It was far from playing with their emotions.
Meat
Have you ever wondered about the expression “meat and drink”? It comes from an older meaning of the word meat that refers to food in general.
Cute
This hasn’t always been the cute word we know today. It used to mean clever or shrewd. Nineteenth-century politician Thomas Chandler Haliburton used the word to describe a shady lawyer.
Guy
This word is an eponym. It’s named after the infamous Guy Fawkes who was involved in an attempt to blow up Parliament in 1605. Folks used to burn his effigy, a “Guy Fawkes” or a “guy,” and from there it came to refer to a frightful figure. In the U.S., it has come to refer to men in general. Read more about the word guy [here]
Nervous
Nervous means jumpy nowadays. That has not always been the case. Nervous used to mean strong and sinewy.
Silly
We use silly to mean foolish or frivolous. Is this what this word always meant? No! It used to mean innocent or pitiable.
Girl
The word girl used to refer to a young person of both genders, not just a young female.
Naughty
Long ago, if you were naughty, you had naught or nothing. Then it came to mean evil or immoral, and now you are just badly behaved.
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Words change meaning all the time — and over time. Language historian Anne Curzan takes a closer look at this phenomenon, and shares some words that used to mean something totally different.
Words change meaning over time in ways that might surprise you. We sometimes notice words changing meaning under our noses (e.g., unique coming to mean “very unusual” rather than “one of a kind”) — and it can be disconcerting. How in the world are we all going to communicate effectively if we allow words to shift in meaning like that?
The good news: History tells us that we’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 sampling of words you may not have realized didn’t always mean what they mean today.
- Nice: This word used to mean “silly, foolish, simple.” Far from the compliment it is today!
- Silly: Meanwhile, silly went in the opposite direction: in its earliest uses, it referred to things worthy or blessed; from there it came to refer to the weak and vulnerable, and more 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 college slang flipped the word’s meaning to refer to failing at things.
- Wench: A shortened form of the Old English word wenchel (which referred to children of either sex), the word wench used to mean “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 meaning “to encircle with one’s arms” to meaning “to understand after much thought.” Here’s the scoop: One’s outstretched arms can be used as a measurement (a fathom), and once you have fathoms, you can use a fathom line to measure the depth of water. Think metaphorically and fathoming becomes about getting to the bottom of things.
- Clue: Centuries ago, a clue (or clew) was a ball of yarn. Think about threading your way through a maze and you’ll see how we got from yarn to key bits of evidence that help us solve things.
- Myriad: If you had a myriad of things 600 years ago, 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 nothing. Then it came to mean evil or immoral, and now you are just badly behaved.
- Eerie: Before the word eerie described things that inspire fear, it used to describe people feeling fear — as in one could feel faint and eerie.
- Spinster: As it sounds, spinsters used to be women who spun. It referred to a legal occupation before it came to mean “unmarried woman” — and often not in the most positive ways, as opposed to a bachelor …
- Bachelor: A bachelor was a young knight before the word came to refer to someone who had achieved the lowest rank at a university — and it lives on in that meaning in today’s B.A. and B.S degrees. It’s been used for unmarried men since Chaucer’s day.
- 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’s emotions (sometimes it may feel like your heart is getting jerked around in the process).
- Guy: This word is an eponym. It comes from the name of Guy Fawkes, who was part of a failed attempt to blow up Parliament in 1605. Folks used to burn his effigy, a “Guy Fawkes” or a “guy,” and from there 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 it refers to today.
- Egregious: It used to be possible for it to be a good thing to be egregious: it meant you were distinguished or eminent. But in the end, the negative meaning of the word won out, and now it means that someone or something is conspicuously bad — not conspicuously good.
- Quell: Quelling something or someone used to mean killing it, not just subduing it.
- Divest: 300 years ago, divesting could involve undressing as well 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 anything related to old age, so you could have senile maturity. Now it refers specifically to those suffering from senile dementia.
- Meat: Have you ever wondered about the expression “meat and drink”? It comes from an older meaning of the word meat that refers to food in general — solid food of a variety of kinds (not just animal flesh), as opposed to drink.
We’re human. We love to play with words in creative ways. And in the process, we change the language. 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.
[ted id=2022]
Watch Anne Curzan’s TED Talk to find out what makes a word “real”.
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The language barrier can make communication abroad really tough, but sometimes, things can get far worse than simply not understanding the foreign language and you can find yourself in a really embarrassing or outrageous situation. Who is to blame? Certainly, it’s not you nor the other person’s fault, you simply misunderstood each other, but it may be some word one of you has said that triggered the awkward situation.
In fact, what you think you’re saying or hearing in English may mean something completely different in other languages. For example, a word that sounds very much like embarrassed in Spanish, ‘embarazada’ actually means pregnant in Spanish. Words like these are called “false friends” in linguistics, and to put it simply, they’re a nuisance, as they sound very similar to a familiar word, but mean something completely different.
The following 15 false friend words are all eerily similar to English words, but they mean something completely different in other languages, so keep an eye out for these when you’re communicating abroad.
1. English and Dutch
Don’t be surprised if someone invites you for a ‘glass’ in the Netherlands.
2. English and French
Never ignore an ‘advertissement’ in France.
3. English and Russian
Don’t get confused if someone is waiting for you in their cabinet in Russia.
4. English and Swedish
Does it seem weird to you that Swedes discuss bras way too often? This is why.
5. English and Georgian
These two words in Georgian are definitely worth remembering to avoid confusion.
6. English and Spanish
Looking for a carpet in a Spanish-speaking country? Don’t be surprised if you’re directed to a stationary store.
7. English and Japanese
Apparently, this word is a borrowing from English that changed in meaning quite drastically, so it’s safer not to say it a lot in public places.
8. English and Polish
Never order pasta at a restaurant in Poland, you’ll be disappointed, to say the least.
9. English and Hungarian
On top of it all, Hungarians pronounce this word as «former», which only adds to the confusion.
10. English and Czech
This is the same in all Slavic languages and many other countries in Europe. Confusing, we know.
11. English and Welsh
In fact, «moron» can be used both the way we do in English and to refer to a carrot in Welsh.
12. English and Malay
Luckily, the pronunciation of this word in Malay is not the same as in English, but in written form, in a menu, let’s say, it would be quite surprising to find some air.
13. English and Spanish
This word is very similar to the word «disgusted» in English, but it means something quite different.
14. English and Hungarian
This is an important distinction to know, especially if you’re having a Hungarian visiting your home.
15. English and German
Mobile phones sure are handy, but in Germany, they are literally called that.
