Km theo bi ni về sự thay đổi về nghỉa của 20 từ trong từ ngữ tiếng Anh.
20 words that once meant something very different
TED Guest Author
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 well 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 didnt always mean what they mean today.
1. Nice: This word used to mean silly, foolish, simple. Far from the compliment it is today!
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Fizzle: The verb fizzle once referred to the act of producing quiet flatulence (think SBD); American college slang flipped the words meaning to refer to failing at things.
5. 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.
6. Fathom: It can be hard to fathom how this verb moved from meaning to encircle with ones arms to meaning to understand after much thought. Heres the scoop: Ones 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.
7. Clue: Centuries ago, a clue (or clew) was a ball of yarn. Think about threading your way through a maze and youll see how we got from yarn to key bits of evidence that help us solve things.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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
12. 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 todays B.A. and B.S degrees. Its been used for unmarried men since Chaucers day.
13. 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 peoples emotions (sometimes it may feel like your heart is getting jerked around in the process).
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. 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.
17. Quell: Quelling something or someone used to mean killing it, not just subduing it.
18. 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.
19. 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.
20. 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.
Were 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 were witnessing today
Thật l vinh dự mời được Ototot ( trưởng lng của JD :-) ), cũng cm ơn Rongchoi, Huutrinon v Caphekho cng gp cho đề ti được phong ph v si động hơn.
Cu What makes a word real? = What makes a word? c lẽ st nghĩa hơn??? :-):-):-)
Theo như trong video: Khng căn cứ vo lịch sữ, khng kể đến sự yu chuộng, khi được tạo ra v sữ dụng để trao đổi v truyền đạt tưởng giữa người v người, th đ l từ ngữ.
Nhớ vo thời xưa, Việt Nam mnh cũng c từ Hippy Choai Choai, khng biết cc bạn cn nhớ khng? Khng biết từ choai choai do đu, chỉ nhớ l hay gọi những người trẻ để tc di v mặc quần ống voi như vậy.
DS cũng thấy tiếc l khng c phụ đề Việt ngữ trong 2 đoạn video. V v Anh ngữ v cả Việt ngữ của mnh c giới hạn, nn khng dm dịch ra. Chỉ đnh chờ Ototot hay cc bạn gip đở chuyển dịch.
Đồng với HTN, đổi thay khng hẳn l một điều tốt, nhưng cũng chưa hẳn l điều xấu phải khng???
Cũng như trong đoạn video c nhắc đến sự thay đổi, lc đầu khng phải ai cũng đều c thể chấp nhận, nhưng chỉ l vấn đề thời gian m thi. ( 5, 10.. hay 100 năm sau ). :-)
Ngn ngữ phong ph v đa dạng, chỉ cần chng ta mở rộng tầm nhn v với sự sng tạo th việc g cũng c thể.
