Posted by Mark (Star Mariner)
(here)
Posted by Paul D.
(here)
...
bad, sick & wicked, are now synonyms for good.
'Sick' is the more recent inversion, 'Bad' meant 'good' or 'cool' way, way back. The Michael Jackson song 'Bad' came out mid-eighties, and it was around before that. Wicked is also an oldie. When I was a kid, 'wicked' was often used for something wildly interesting or trendy.
This isn't just a sign of the times. English has always been on the move. Take the word '
Terrific', originally meaning 'that which induces terror', now it means 'exceptionally good'. '
Awful' used to mean 'full of awe', now it means 'exceptionally bad'. The word '
bemused' was once a synonym for confused, or entranced, as in placed under a spell, now it means wryly amused. '
Stay' was a formal term meaning 'to halt an action' (stay the execution), but this morphed into 'continue the action' (stay the course).
In British English, the word '
before', rather than meaning something in the past, meant 'in front of', as in 'the future is before us'. The word '
bound' has several meanings: 'going to', as in hellbound, or starbound, or, conversely, 'saying put' - bound in one place. '
Strike' usually means to 'hit', in baseball it means to 'miss'. '
Buckle' means 'hold', or 'secure tightly', but also 'fold up' or 'collapse'. And the word '
cool' again; it means both 'good' or 'agreeable' (that's a cool car), and 'not good / less than agreeable (he received a cool reception to his speech). '
I'm down' often means 'I'm sad', or 'depressed'; '
I'm down with..' means I'm positively disposed towards something. '
Take care of' used to mean 'to assist or nurture', it has also taken on the meaning 'to destroy or eliminate' (I took care of that wasp's nest). '
Execute': start a process,
Execute: end one (take someone's life).
English is a minefield!
When your kid's teacher tells you 'Your child is trying', does that mean they're doing their best, or that they're hard to endure?'
English is constantly evolving, transforming, mutating. Take these further examples of 'linguistic drift':
Cleave: "to cling to" or "to split apart"
Clip: to "attach" or "cut off"
Dust: "to remove dust" (cleaning a house) or "to add dust" (to dust a cake with powdered sugar)
Fast: "without moving; fixed in place", (holding fast, also as in "steadfast"), or "moving quickly"
Overlook: "watch closely" or "fail to notice"
Sanction: "to approve" or "to penalize"
Here's a list of
homophonic contranyms, which are words that sound the same but generally contradict each other:
enumerable / innumerable: countable / beyond countable
raise / raze: build up / cut down
petalless / petalous: without petals / with petals
oral / aural: pertaining to the mouth or speech / pertaining to the ears
prescribe / proscribe: authorize / prohibit
resign / re-sign: cease working for / continue working for (pronounced slightly differently)
There are also many words with the same spelling and pronunciation, like
impregnable: (impossible to enter / able to be entered and impregnated)
inflammable: (flammable / nonflammable)
left: (that which is gone / that which remains)
moot: (open for debate, discussion / irrelevant to debate, discussion)
off: (stopped operating -
'I turned the TV off' / started operating -
'the starter pistol went off'
out: (visible)
-the stars are out / (not visible)
-the lights went out
outstanding: (prominent, excellent / unresolved, overdue).
Et cetera!
Re: The Joy of Learning New Words
. Instead of deleting most of the words in the language to reduce thinking and speaking ability, they're just saturating the language with all this nonsense to dilute it (while also just flat out changing the meaning of words as well, i.e. "violence", "harm" "hate" etc)
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