Questions tagged [semantic-shift]
Semantic shift is the change in meaning that occurs in many words
57 questions
7
votes
1
answer
922
views
On the usage of POV in social media
According to the the following site:
Everyone knows that “POV” is short for “point of view” to represent a first-person perspective but teens also use it in the second-person to strengthen their ...
- 5,226
0
votes
2
answers
120
views
Need an accessible explanation on nitty-gritty details of how semantical distinction between count vs uncount nouns works in English
Sorry if this question has been answered before, I have been unable to find anything remotely adequate on this website.
What I want: to learn patterns that allow to be better at guessing (and/or ...
- 129
3
votes
1
answer
138
views
When and where did 'hospice' in the sense of 'palliative care facility or program for the terminally ill' originate in English?
Merriam-Webster's Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, first edition (1898) has this entry for hospice:
Hospice, n. {F., fr. L. hospitium hospitality, place where strangers are entertained, fr. hospes ...
- 169k
3
votes
1
answer
256
views
How did "phenomenal" come to mean "extraordinary"?
Phenomenal nowadays is primarily used in common discourse to mean extraordinary, although it has a now-rarer secondary meaning which I suspect was originally its primary meaning:
a. known through the ...
- 1,919
0
votes
1
answer
57
views
Words for the two "directions" of the meanings words gain or lose over time
Maybe this belongs on "Linguistics" but since it's about an English word, I suppose they'd only send me here.
Over time, some words gather more and more meanings to themselves. Ironically, ...
- 87
4
votes
1
answer
411
views
"them" vs. "those"
In some places, I have found them to be used in a place where it seems to mean as much as those. One example is the song Into the Great Wide Open by Tom Petty. The chorus has the lines
Into the great ...
- 417
4
votes
1
answer
400
views
Usage of "high school" and "secondary school" in British Columbia
I grew up in British Columbia, Canada. In the area where I grew up (Greater Vancouver), the school system was generally separated into elementary and high school, with elementary starting at ...
1
vote
1
answer
172
views
What is the meaning of "to have" in old cartoons?
In old cartoons, particularly "Little Red Riding Rabbit" of Looney Tunes, characters say "to have" with a meaning that seems different to the modern sense. For example, in the said ...
- 119
26
votes
3
answers
334
views
"Guys" losing its gendered meaning in American English
Disclaimer - I have very little knowledge of semantics, and I am mostly just a phonetics enthusiast. Thus, my question and the way I explain it may be unprofessional or may lack linguistic rigor.
I'm ...
- 890
0
votes
1
answer
70
views
Semantic shift of worrywart!
The informal AmE term worrywart refers to:
a person who tends to dwell unduly on difficulty or troubles.
but according to a few sources the original meaning of the word was actually its opposite:
...
- 67.9k
3
votes
2
answers
464
views
When an entity 'fails' to do an action, does it imply that they 'ought' to do that action?
For example:
High-functioning psychopaths often fail to recognize the thoughts and feelings of the people they hurt.
In this example, there is no intention to do the action (verb) by the person ...
-1
votes
2
answers
61
views
Is saying "X allows anything to happen without any restriction" the same as saying "According to X anything can happen without any restriction"
I am not a native english speaker so I don't know if the below given statements have the exact same meaning. To my current understanding they do mean the same thing but I'm not sure about it.
...
- 99
-3
votes
1
answer
99
views
Does the word "besides" have two senses belonging to one semantic field?
The term "besides" can mean
"apart from"; "other than";
"I have no friends besides Maria."
"I have nothing besides a car."
"in addition (to)&...
- 53
0
votes
2
answers
85
views
Is "to call someone out" in the sense of "to criticize/accuse/shame publicly" a new use? [duplicate]
Using "to call out" in the sense described is linked to heightened awareness of social justice and the use of social media. This Wikipedia article specifically links the origin of the ...
- 3,051
3
votes
1
answer
164
views
Diffidence, a false friend
I’ve recently erroneously used the term diffidence with the meaning of distrust.
Diffidence is one of the terms called false friend and, as a matter of fact, the same term in French defiance and ...
- 67.9k
-2
votes
1
answer
79
views
“Mining” as opposed to “minting” w.r.t. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies
I find it fascinating that nearly everyone refers to the algorithmic generation of cryptocurrencies (CC) as mining. Personally, I've never found minting in this context.
In my understanding of the ...
user173639
8
votes
2
answers
3k
views
When did 'wyrm' lose its meaning as dragon?
I'm interested in finding out (roughly) when the Old English word 'wyrm' began to lose its meaning as 'A serpent, snake, dragon' due to the competing 'draca' and the later borrowing 'dragon'. I've ...
- 81
1
vote
1
answer
3k
views
Is the use of the word "cracker" as a racial slur so common that it cannot safely be used to refer to certain hackers? [duplicate]
I always liked to use the word "crackers" to refer to people who overcome computer software or security restrictions, as opposed to "hackers," which (supposedly) originally meant people skilled at ...
- 375
1
vote
1
answer
1k
views
The modern usage of the term scantily clad
The term scantily clad is commonly defined as inadequately clothed, under dressed, or wearing something that covers too little of the body, but I've seen the term used simply to describe people who ...
- 21
18
votes
2
answers
3k
views
How did "to draw" shift to mean "to depict with lines"?
"To draw" originally meant "to drag, pull", and it's pretty easy to make sense of the many meanings of the verb with that in mind.
Draw a sword, draw a card, draw water from a well, draw breath, a ...
- 323
5
votes
1
answer
2k
views
How did "womanizer" develop its current meaning?
A womanizer is:
a man who always seems to have a new girlfriend, and who has no hesitation about starting up a new relationship before he's ended the last one. Usually, these relationships are ...
- 67.9k
7
votes
3
answers
287
views
Term for metonymy becoming an accepted word for the original, over time
A metonymy:
... a thing or concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept
The only example I can think of is tea. Tea can refer to the drink or the ...
- 79
13
votes
4
answers
4k
views
Is “What goes around comes around” African-American?
The famous aphorism, (and a Justin Timberlake's song) what goes around comes around, appears to have originated in the United States. It refers to a completed cycle, and normally carries a negative ...
- 92.9k
2
votes
1
answer
151
views
How did something comprehensive fail to be comprehensible?
According to Wiktionary the etymology of "comprehensive" derives from Latin "comprehensivius" (via French) which in turn means comprehensible.
However I often find comprehensive sources to be very ...
- 171
1
vote
0
answers
526
views
Can you still use "epic" in a non-"epic" way?
The semantic shift of epic from denoting something related with heroism, grandeur, etc. to meaning something more akin to awesome or impressive is well-attested. However, how much is its older meaning ...
- 321
6
votes
3
answers
343
views
How did "right-on" become pejorative in BrEng?
In The Guardian, I read the following passage
The former Leicester, Everton, Spurs and Barcelona striker, also vowed to continue to “speak up for refugees and immigrants and British values of ...
- 542
7
votes
2
answers
426
views
Linguistic connection between the geophysical "bluff" and the deceptive "bluff"?
I know that words can have their etymology independent of words that share the same spelling, but according to Etymology Dictionary, both the geophysical "Bluff" and the deceptive "Bluff" originate in ...
4
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Timeline of semantic change of the term "social justice warrior" (SJW)
We have a question about the origin of "SJW". I'm interested in how its usage has changed over time. As a rough outline:
It seems to have started out as a nonce-term of praise.
Then, it took on a ...
- 1,940
1
vote
1
answer
1k
views
Usage and meaning of the term "narrative"
I have the impression that the term narrative, which traditionally refers to the literary sense of:
the art, technique, or process of narrating, or of telling a story: Somerset Maugham was a ...
user66974
0
votes
1
answer
569
views
How has pathetic fallacy's meaning changed?
When John Ruskin first coined the term pathetic fallacy he truly did mean that people were committing a fallacy when describing inanimate objects as having characteristics (or having pathos so were, ...
- 7,135
-1
votes
2
answers
15k
views
The prefix "post" can it mean before? [closed]
The posterior is the behind, the postero-dorsal is behind the antero-dorsal.
But when we're talking about time, postmodern means "of, relating to, or being an era after a modern one".
So are there ...
- 327
5
votes
3
answers
621
views
Does the "she was found in violation of..." <-> "she was violated" equivalence have a name?
This is a follow-up to this question: Why is "violated" being used as future perfect with a person as the object?
At that question, it was established that there is a jargon/slang usage of ...
user166568
1
vote
1
answer
611
views
Is it common for "unmitigated" to be used hyperbolically?
In Thousands of radioactive boars are overrunning farmland in Fukushima, the word "unmitigated" is used, even though it isn't an unqualified disaster, as noted in the next sentence.
Nuclear ...
- 18.2k
4
votes
5
answers
4k
views
"Are YOU coming to get me" / "Are you coming to GET me" Is there any grammatical or semantic difference?
Is there any grammatical or semantic difference between the phrases:
"Are you coming to get me?"—used to imply the question of whether that particular person is coming to get whoever.
And this ...
- 961
4
votes
2
answers
1k
views
The semantic shift of "mundane"
All the main English dictionaries give the following as the primary meaning of mundane:
Dull; ordinary and not interesting or exciting, especially because of happening too regularly,
(ODO, ...
user66974
44
votes
10
answers
8k
views
Has "hacker" definitely gained a negative connotation?
The American Heritage Dictionary defines a hacker as:
One who is proficient at using or programming a computer; a computer buff.
One who uses programming skills to gain illegal access to a ...
user66974
3
votes
1
answer
131
views
Recent shifts in semantics which lead to misunderstandings [closed]
I was just answering this question. It is about a use of "should". The word seems to have undergone a semantic shift away from a simple first-person form of "would". Instead it is today most often ...
- 3,051
3
votes
1
answer
223
views
Semantic drift: are the words "can", "could", etc becoming contranyms?
There have been questions on ELU about the pronunciation of can and can't in American English. This question is about the usage of the word, not simply its pronunciation.
Here are a couple of ...
- 39k
7
votes
4
answers
1k
views
Origins of the shift in usage/meaning of the word "religion"
I need some research help regarding the shift in the meaning/usage of the word "religion" in Christian parlance.
Background:
In recent years the use word "religion" has changed from its classic ...
- 195
1
vote
1
answer
416
views
If "propriety" is from the French for "property", why is it now about proper comportment?
I was trying to reverse-translate a quote I mistakenly believed to be originally in French that I saw in English, so as to find the source. (It turned out to be from Jeremy Bentham.) In the process, I ...
- 535
55
votes
6
answers
37k
views
How did phobia ever come to mean hatred?
I understand the word 'phobia' to mean an irrational fear of something, tracing its roots to the Greek word ῾φοβια᾽ associated with flight, dread, or terror.
How then did this word ever come to ...
- 779
5
votes
1
answer
2k
views
How did we get ‘deft’ and ‘daffy’ from “daft”?
[ Etymonline for 'daft (adj.)'] Old English gedæfte "gentle, becoming," ... from PIE * dhabh- "to fit together" (see fabric). Sense of "mild, well-mannered" (c. 1200).
[ ...
user50720
57
votes
7
answers
22k
views
When is my son's first birthday?
[Clue: he was born three weeks ago, on 23 September 2014.]
Originally, as I understand it, the word birthday meant the day of one's birth. It was a one-off event.
I don't want to quarrel with the ...
- 3,101
0
votes
2
answers
219
views
Business English Semantic Shift of "Abreast"
My coworker just sent out an email asking someone to [please] keep abreast for a response. My understanding is that the phrase is keep abreast of x, and that it is used to mean actively keeping up ...
- 1,445
4
votes
1
answer
656
views
What lexical relationship lies between the days of the week?
I'm confused, What is the lexical relationship between "Monday" and "Tuesday"?
I mean is the relationship hyponymy, prototypes, polysemy, homophones, metonymy etc?
- 49
0
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Whatever happened to thou and thee? Thy words have become more dreary [closed]
Why did thee, thou and thy come to disappear from English? I am looking for solid explanations, rather than observations that these are still used in dialects in the north. Please explain cause for ...
- 209
8
votes
3
answers
3k
views
What is the real history of the word "scenario"?
In a moment of revery, I pondered from what language the word "scenario" originated. Unsurprisingly, it's Italian in origin, according to etymonline, but the etymonline etymology surprised me - the ...
- 246
2
votes
2
answers
4k
views
"Ridiculous amount": semantic change (amelioration) originated from an antiphrasis? When and how?
"Ridiculous" means laughable, laughable because it is obviously and hilariously not good enough.
However in English "a ridiculous amount of money" is "a ridiculously large amount of money". In ...
- 272
3
votes
1
answer
78k
views
Which is correct: I'll be moving next month or I'll be shifting next month?
For changing one's home from one place to another, I've heard people in western part of the world using the sentence:
I'll be moving next month.
In India, even in the English news channels, I've ...
- 273
11
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Why and how did "a sensible boy" become "intelligent and prudent"?
Italians often get confused by sensible and sensitive. If I tell them
He's a sensible boy; he studies hard, saves his money, and plans ahead.
They are quite bewildered. To them, sensible is ...
- 92.9k