How words change their meaning

When did "circular reasoning" become "raising the question"?

ONCE UPON a time, you would not have been happy if someone described you as nice. The word used to mean stupid, ignorant, incapable. Now, of course, it means pleasant, satisfactory, agreeable. It can be used sarcastically—as in Nice try—or idiomatically—as in Make nice— but mostly nice is just a rather common, tepid adjective that means. . . well, nice.

How, over the centuries, does an ignorant chump turn into a pleasant gentleman? New meanings often evolve out of repeated misuse. For example, each time someone says “incredulous” when they mean “incredible,” they’re voting to change the meaning of incredulous. Or consider “literally” and how, over the past decade or so, it has evolved from meaning “to the letter”—a literal translation—into an all-purpose intensifier, like really—Those guys in the weight room are literally jacked.

Lately, I’ve noticed people saying “simplistic” to mean very easy (I gave her simplistic directions to follow) rather than overly simplified (That’s a simplistic explanation of why he lost—there were many other factors at play). When you use a word or phrase erroneously, you’re subtly encouraging others to do likewise. Once enough people do, the original meaning may fade away. Fulsome used to mean excessively flattering (His fulsome praise had the audience in stitches), but enough people thought it meant abundant that, so the dictionaries tell us, it now does.

GROWING UP, I understood that “begging the question” referred to a flaw in logic sometimes called circular reasoning. Essentially, you answer a question as if it’s already been answered. For instance: Why does smoking pot make people sleepy?

Because pot has a soporific quality (i.e., because pot makes people sleepy).

Why do people die?

Because man is mortal (i.e., because people die).

Here’s my favourite example of begging the question:

Many younger writers, I’d wager, don’t know that begging the question once meant anything other than raising the question. Dictionaries in recent years have come to define the phrase as having both meanings. We’re all in the business of making ourselves understood through language, and if everyone is now using the term to mean raise the question, I guess it’s time to stop correcting them. (Not to self: this means you, Gary.)

SOCIETAL FORCES often play a role in the evolution of language. Take the word gay, which used to mean cheery or lively or fun. Today, of course, it means homosexual. How did we get from cheer to queer? Well, when I was growing up, homosexuality was not openly discussed. People used euphemisms, some vulgar, some more polite—so-and-so was a fairy, or a pansy, or limp-wristed, or light in his loafers.

Gay was probably first used euphemistically to avoid direct reference to something that was then illegal and morally divisive. It has kept its original meaning (We had a gay old time at the concert, and Now we don our gay apparel) while also acting in disguise. As the need for disguise receded, the word grew into a proud signifier. Today, it has expanded beyond sexual orientation to denote broader realms of identity and culture in the LGBTQ+ community.

Many other common English words have undergone striking transformations in meaning. Some have merely had their denotation refined or expanded over time. Some hold on to their original sense but are now mostly used to convey the newer meaning. Others, as we’ll see, have come to mean the exact opposite of what they once did. Here are some examples:

Awful originally meant inspiring wonder and awe, rather than extremely bad.

Silly meant fortunate, not lacking in sense.

Egregious once meant remarkably good rather than, today, remarkably bad.

Fantastic meant purely imaginary before it came to mean really great.

Cute used to mean clever (it still does, as in a cute solution), but is now mostly used to mean endearingly attractive.

Terrible originally meant inciting fear, but now means really bad.

An apology used to be a justification. Today it’s an expression of remorse.

Decimate once meant to kill one in ten. Now it means to cause massive damage.

Peruse meant to read thoroughly. Now it means to skim, or read casually.

Nonplussed meant bewildered. Today it means unfazed.

Fast used to mean firmly fixed (and still does, as in hold fast), but usually means speedy.

Careful meant worried. Now it means cautious.

Meat referred to any food before it came to denote animal flesh.

At one time, a girl was any young person, not just a female child.

A clue was a ball of thread, not a hint or a piece of evidence.

Venom used to be a healing substance, not a poisonous secretion.

Something manufactured was made by hand, rather than machine-made.

Officious meant ready to serve, rather than annoyingly intrusive.

NEW WORDS, and new meanings for old words, are entering the language all the time, just as little-used ones gradually become archaic. The evolution of language has never been more rapid than in recent years, since the internet allows for almost overnight popularization of a word or expression. Short forms such as inspo, vacay, adorbs, and sesh get instantly adopted by millions of people on social media.

Merrian Webster dictionary recently made 690 additions to their latest edition. The tech world, always a rich generator of neologisms, last year gave us passkey (authentication based on biometrics), large language model (which uses a vast dataset to predict and construct natural-sounding text), and hallucination (a false response generated by an AI algorithm).

Street slang is also a dependable source of new words. Bussin’ (meaning outstanding, as in The steak here is bussin’) has finally moved from Black slang to mainstream. Rizz, perhaps derived from charisma, is a noun that means charm or romantic appeal. Jorts are jean shorts, and to cape someone is to act as their defender or supporter.

Several acronyms also made the Merriam Webster cut. GOAT, which I first heard to describe either quarterback Tom Brady or golfer Tiger Woods, stands for greatest of all time. TTYL (talk to you later) has been an online signoff since the early days of gaming and messaging. UAP (for unidentified aerial phenomenon), has apparently become the preferred military/government way of referring to what used to be known as a UFO.

The new addition I like least, and vow never to use, is cheffy (Those are some cheffy dicing skills you’ve got), which joins the growing list of equally irritating adjectives that end in “y,” such as judgy, douchey, and rapey. What y-word will be next? Maybe bingy (compelling Netflix show)? Or doomy (Middle East conflict videos)?

Personally, I vote for nuffy, as in Enough already!