The Unexpected Evolution of Language (12 page)

By the end of the same century, however, the same “compliment” might have led to fisticuffs, a donnybrook, a scuffle because by 1600, “egregious” had almost entirely adopted its new meaning of “outstandingly bad.”

The reason for the change? Something with which teenagers the world over are very familiar: sarcasm.

Over time, many, many people of the sixteenth century began to use the word “egregious” the same way people today might say, “Great job,” and really mean, “Rotten job.” The negative sense of the word caught on, and “egregious” stopped being complimentary.

empty

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
unmarried

NEW DEFINITION:
vacant; containing nothing

Here’s proof that marriage is more fulfilling than the single life. At one time, “empty” meant, variously: idle, at leisure, and without obligation. But one of its principal definitions was “unmarried.” Yep, the unmarried life once was, literally, the “empty life.”

The word evolved over the centuries to focus on a lack in general, rather than on those lacking lasses or lads. The semantic shift isn’t too difficult to follow. All of “empty’s” original meanings suggest vacant hours or a life containing no one but you. Thus, “empty” came to mean vacant or void by the end of the Middle Ages.

Not So Empty After All

For such an “empty” word, “empty” has had a pretty full life. In the 1600s, the expression “empty-handed,” meaning lacking money or goods, came along. And in the 1980s, the term “empty nester” became a vogue way to describe parents whose children have grown up and moved away.

enthusiasm

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
divine inspiration

NEW DEFINITION:
excitement; eagerness

At one time, if a person was in the grip of “enthusiasm,” it meant that he had been possessed by the divine inspiration of God himself. In fact, he would have been in the grip of religious ecstasy: speaking in tongues, writhing on the ground, etc.

Then along came the Puritans. They thought all that “religious ecstasy” was overdoing it. People, God forbid, might be … enjoying themselves in church! Wasn’t there something a little, well, lewd about all that writhing around?! Thus, for a time, “enthusiasm” gained a pejorative ring, suggesting excessive expression of religious emotions and, by extension,
any
disproportionate display of emotion.

The general public rescued “enthusiasm” by the eighteenth century. It lost its connection to religious zeal, but it gained a nonpejorative sense of excitement, interest, or eagerness. Of course, “enthusiasm” can still be pejorative if, say, your fishing fanatic buddy drags you out of bed at 5:30
A.M.
on a Saturday because “that’s when the good ones are biting.”

exorcise

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
to invoke spirits

NEW DEFINITION:
to banish spirits

From 1400 to 1600, “exorcise” could mean either using demons for nefarious (or profit-making) purposes,
or
for casting demons out of poor, unsuspecting innocents. But an exorcism was often simply an opportunity for someone to invoke spirits in order to get them to do his or her bidding. By 1600, the word began to refer almost exclusively to getting rid of demons. It became synonymous with “casting out devils,” one of Christ’s New Testament miracles: “But if I by the Spirit of God cast out devils, then is the kingdom of God come upon you” (Matthew 12:29).

Exorcism has been a staple of horror films at least since Linda Blair used a crucifix for purposes God never intended in the 1973 film,
The Exorcist
. As a result, most people are familiar with an exorcism ceremony. To wit: A demon has inhabited a formerly nice person, making him or her evil, and a priest/shaman/holy person is called in to throw that infernal sucker right back into hell.

expletive

ORIGINAL MEANING:
“empty” words used in writing

NEW MEANING:
profanity; swearword

The original definition of “expletive” refers to words like “it” when “it” doesn’t have a clear antecedent (a word to which “it” refers).

For example, consider the sentence “It is stupid of you to skip class.” “It” is a pronoun, yet, in that sentence, “it” doesn’t refer to anything. You should instead say, “To skip class is stupid.” But nobody really talks—or writes—this way. If you do, you’re an egghead. (No one likes you. Get over yourself.)

For people who study linguistics, an expletive is still a “filler” word, but for most, “expletive” is a word that means “dirty word” or “profanity.” Some credit Sir Walter Scott with introducing “expletive” as an alternative to “offensive” words. But as far as mainstream usage, the English language has Richard Nixon to thank. The man who gave the world Watergate and a lasting distrust of politicians also bequeathed the modern sense of the word “expletive.” Transcripts from the tapes Nixon secretly made while in the White House are filled with the expression “expletive deleted.” Nixon being quite the pottymouth, the phrase was so omnipresent that it associated (perhaps forever) “expletive” with “four-letter word.”

Minced Oaths

When you mince something for a recipe, you cut it into very small pieces. When you “mince an oath,” you take a word or phrase that’s exceptionable and make it acceptable for general audiences. Thus, “minced oath” is the term etymologists have given to expletives that have been rendered toothless.

• The “d word”: darn, dang, doggone
  
• The “s word”: shoot, sugar, shucks
  
• The “h word”: heck, H-E-double hockey sticks
  
• The “g word”: gosh, goodness, golly, goldang, goldarn
  
• The “f word”: flipping, freaking, effing, fricking
  

explode

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
to drive someone off a stage with clapping and rude noises

NEW DEFINITION:
to blast; detonate; blow up

Originally, “explode” comes from a Latin root that means literally “outclap.” The idea goes something like this. You’re watching a play, and you think the play sucks or the acting is terrible. So, you start to clap loudly, hiss, and stamp your feet, all in an effort to get those bozos off the stage.

Even after the word entered English, it still carried this ancient meaning. Critics would write about actors being “exploded” off the stage, and they didn’t mean someone blew them into tiny bits (even if the critics thought this would have been a worthy response to a putrid performance). The connection between the stage and a grenade is the loud, fright-inducing noise.

The word didn’t gain its primary present-day meaning, of a violent, destructive burst, until the end of the nineteenth century. Nowadays, no one would ever assume a connection between bad acting and dirty bombs, but, historically, there it is.

F

fabulous

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
mythical; legendary

NEW DEFINITION:
wonderful; extraordinary

If you look at this word, you can see that “fable” seems to be part of it. Fables are fictional stories that include universal truths. In that way, they’re akin to myths. Myths are stories once believed true, now believed fictional, that give the origin of worlds, cultures, etc.

Thus, “fabulous” was used to describe objects, animals, and people you would find in myths or fables. Dragons were “fabulous.” The exploits of early European kings were “fabulous.” Alchemy turned out to be “fabulous.”

The transformation of this word is straightforward. Mythical and legendary kings, for example, were larger than life. They were like ancient superheroes. When stories were told about them, listeners were filled with wonder. They found these heroes’ actions extraordinary—literally beyond the ordinary.

Thus, by the early modern era, “fabulous” focused on the feelings of wonder people experienced when hearing fables and myths, rather than on the myths and fables themselves.

facial

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
face-to-face

NEW DEFINITION:
spa service

Long before it was something offered in beauty salons and spas, “facial” was a word that meant “face-to-face.” For example, “I had a facial discussion with John about the price of hogs.” Or, “Would you have a facial meeting with me regarding the potential for our courtship?”

Somewhere around the early part of the 1800s, folks started to use “facial” when they meant “of the face.” For example, “I see you have a facial blemish.”

About 100 years later, beauticians began to offer facials to well-heeled customers. Facial masks exfoliated, cleansed, and moisturized
—all things “of the face.”

Finally, sometime during the second half of the twentieth century, “facial” became a term used to describe certain acts in pornographic videos. This is the type of facial with which men are most likely to be familiar.

fact

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
feat; evil deed

NEW DEFINITION:
information known or believed to be true

This word’s Latin roots suggest “something done,” an accomplishment. But in its earliest use, “fact” also had a negative connotation. That sense is still captured in legalese like “accessory after the fact.”

Since a “fact” once meant an occurrence or action, especially an “evil” one, then people probably talked about what had happened. In those days before instant communication, wagging tongues were the principal source of information. Most likely, then as now, not everything presented as “fact” actually was verifiably true. But, then as now,
how
correct each account was probably didn’t matter. Once the word had spread, the “fact” might as well have been true. So the definition morphed into a report of something that was indeed true. The fact that a “fact” wasn’t necessarily always factual didn’t preclude everyone from accepting it as gospel truth.