Word, term or phrase for idioms, proverbs, figure-of-speech that lose their true meaning due to being from a different time or due to translation? [duplicate]

Question

In various language literature, there could be idioms, proverbs, figure-of-speech that lose their true meaning because

• it meant something in a different time period

Or

• it was being translated from one language to another

For example,

In the bible, ( 1 Samuel 18:1 & 2 Samuel 1:26 ) bible verses express Jonathon & David's Love for each other that seems to us in the 21st century to be strangely like homosexuality:

1 Samuel 18:1

New American Standard Bible 1995

18 Now it came about when he had finished speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as himself.

2 Samuel 1:26

New American Standard Bible 1995

26 “I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; You have been very pleasant to me. Your love to me was more wonderful Than the love of women.

Song of Solomon 8:1 expresses the intimacy between God(Jesus Christ) & Israel(church) in such a way that would seem to us in the 21st century to be strangely like incest.

(Song of Solomon 8:1)

New American Standard Bible 1995 1 “Oh that you were like a brother to me Who nursed at my mother’s breasts. If I found you outdoors, I would kiss you; No one would despise me, either.

21st century bible readers might mistakenly interpret said verses to be associated with homosexuality and incest, but the ancient bible readers would Not see it that way.

What word, term or phrase would describe idioms, proverbs, figure-of-speech that lose their true meaning because

• it meant something in a different time period?

Or

• it was being translated from one language to another?

Answer 1

When the answer to the question "How do you express X" changes over time, that is a matter of diachronic onomasiology. When the answer to the question "What does X mean" changes depending on the era, that is a matter of diachronic semasiology. So there are two different terms associated with this depending on whether you focus on how the way we say X changes or on how a particular expression's connotations change.

As written, your question leans towards the second idea - the tendency to assign a different connotation to a particular phrase written in the past.

The most common term for this is probably semantic drift.

When a word or phase becomes awkward to use because of changing meanings, it is called a skunked term.

A skunked term is a word that becomes difficult to use because it is transitioning from one meaning to another, perhaps inconsistent or even opposite, usage, or a word that becomes difficult to use due to other controversy surrounding the word. Purists may insist on the old usage, while descriptivists may be more open to newer usages. Readers may not know which sense is meant especially when prescriptivists insist on a meaning that accords with interests that often conflict.

The term was coined by lexicographer Bryan A. Garner in Garner's Modern American Usage and has since been adopted by some other style guides.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skunked_term

Answer 2

Confusion due to language change does arise on occasion. The usual way of putting this is taking something out of its original context, here linguistic context.

The definition of “to take things out of context” is: If a statement or remark is quoted out of context, the circumstances in which it was said are not correctly reported, so that it seems to mean something different from the meaning that was intended.

[Lingotek.com]

With mistranslation, when of less than paramount importance, it is often said that 'It loses something in the translation'.