Fun With Words

Evolution of Meaning

We are told that if we want to know what a word means, we should look it up in the dictionary.  However, the dictionaries aren't in control as much as one might think, because words in spoken languages eventually mean whatever people use them to mean in day-to-day speech.   Over time, word meanings shift.  During a period of transition, there can be some confusion over what is meant by a word, even to the extent that some, "oxymoronic," words have mutually exclusive meanings simultaneously in use.  At other times the current meaning is clear but one has to wonder what caused it to drift radically from a distant origin.  Was the shift due to random change, sloppiness, a radical shift in the lives of the speakers, or other reasons?  Old meanings may die as the word lives on, or if the old meaning is no longer popular the very word itself may die.

Thing

The word 'thing' is linked to the history of early European decision-making by a council rather than a ruler.  Today the word sounds plain and humble, but its roots align with some of highest aspirations in modern society.

History

In Scandinavia before the 11th century, important decisions were made by councils called 'things' by the peoples they served.  Wikipedia provides a delightful history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thing_%28assembly%29

From the dictionary

Thing is one of the oldest words in the [English] language...  with an original meaning of 'assembly, court, council'.  Webster's Dictionary of Word Origins, Barnes&Noble, NY, 2004, page 462.

In some modern English dictionaries, 'thing' is still listed as meaning a Scandinavian legislative body.  Webster's New World Dictionary of American English, 3rd College Edition, 1988.

Food for thought

How did the 'thing' evolve in English to its current most familiar meaning, which allows it to be applied to any old object? How did the word fall so low?  Is it possible that at some point an autocrat attacked the Thing itself by eroding the meaning of the word?

Nice

Nice is a suspicious word, all right.  We can say someone or something is 'nice' without being required to develop a complex understanding or strong commitment.  As with 'liking' something on social media, use of 'nice' in conversation greases the wheels of social engagement without taxing our brains.  The only risk is that in some ears it sounds like condemnation through faint praise, particularly when used after a slight pause in the sentence.  For this reason, some speakers will say 'really nice' with a strong emphasis on 'really' to prop up 'nice', given its reputation for being vapid.  Even so, who would have thought that at one time 'nice' had a precise meaning more or less the opposite of the current one?

Etymology

Nice came to us from Latin, through Old French then Middle English, along the following trajectory: 
Middle English:  strange, lazy, foolish < Old French: stupid, foolish < Latin: ignorant, not knowing.  It's based on the negative form of a Latin root: scire, to know (as in science).

These past meanings appear to be well behaved among themselves.  It is at a later point that we begin to see trouble.  I am not qualified to explain how it came about, but somewhere between Middle English and 1988 in the United States we arrived at the following entries in Wesbter's New World Dictionary of American English, Third College Edition, 1988.  Let's hope that college students weren't using dictionaries much at that time, because here is what we find:  the first definition is "difficult to please, fastidious; refined," and the last includes "agreeable, pleasant."

Who, indeed, would want to use a word that means both difficult to please and agreeable?   Not in peace treaty negotiations, in any case.  The common ground between the opposing meanings seems to be refinement.  A refined person can seem overly critical, demanding, or snobby to one person, while simultaneously appearing pleasing and gracious to another.  Still.

Food for thought

I would say that today 'nice' means kind toward other people, and flexible in decision-making.  I don't think it retains any shadows of 'ignorant', or 'difficult to please'...or for that matter (when applied to people) 'refined,' except to the extent that refined people and nice people share an ability to control the expression of their emotions when feeling angry or impatient.  I wonder, however, whether there was a transition period when the two opposing definitions were both in common use: one meaning flexible and agreeable, the other meaning inflexible and disagreeable.  If so, it certainly wouldn't have been a nice word, but who is to blame?  Perhaps oxymoronic phases in word development just need to be tolerated patiently, like some adolescences, until a new coherence arises.

Dead As A Doornail

Some people bemoan any change to language.  But if the reality described by a word disappears, the word itself may be obliged to follow.  How are we to go about describing something that no longer happens among us, even if once it did?  Here are some words that give us a hint that human habits do change from time to time and place to place.

Tulipomania:  A reckless mania for the purchase of tulips.  

Stirrup-verse:  A verse recited at parting.  

Trencher-poetry:  Rhymes to be traded for bread; verses written so as to secure a patron.

Weaponsalve:  A salve which was supposed to cure a wound by being applied to the weapon that made the wound.

Pornocracy:  A rule by prostitutes.  "It evolved from The Pornocracy, a party which controlled the government of Rome and elections to the papacy throughout the first part of the tenth century." 

- Selected from The Word Museum; The Most Remarkable English Words Ever Forgotten, by Jeffrey Kacirk, A Touchstone Book, 2000.

Weaponizing and De-Weaponizing Words

The Corbett Report, 10/6/2020, "I am a Conspiracy Theorist", delivers a long-winded attack on the current use of the phrase "Conspiracy Theorists". It's about time someone said this.  https://www.corbettreport.com/i-am-a-conspiracy-theorist/

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