Training #653 — Language and Change
Words change meaning while nobody is watching. Nobody announces it, and the shift happens quietly in the way people talk and write. In this live training, we went down that rabbit hole and looked at how English got to where it is, as well as at the words that have moved on from what they used to mean.
Along the way we looked at some words whose old meanings are a long way from the new ones. “Silly” once meant something closer to blessed. “Decimate” started as a very specific kind of loss, and “awful,” “artificial,” and “amusing” all began somewhere quite different from where they are now.
The point for authors is practical. Your readers use the words as they are now, and a word you’ve used correctly your whole life may be carrying a meaning you don’t intend. We discuss how to spot those words in your own manuscript, when the old meaning is worth using on purpose, and when it’s better to pick a different word.
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