In other threads, Dale has given examples of semantic shifting and Petafromoz has raised the topic again.
One of my favourite examples is the common word sophisticate(d).
Originally it came from the Greek sophistikos movement of Sophists who were renowned for their specious but fallacious argument, either used deliberately in order to deceive or mislead, or employed as a means of displaying ingenuity in reasoning (OED). Sophisticate entered the English language in the early 17th century and meant contaminated by some foreign substance, adulterated, without simplicity or natural virtues.
This gradually evolved in the late 19th century to a person: free of naïvety, experienced, worldly-wise; subtle, discriminating, refined, cultured; aware of, versed in, the complexities of a subject or pursuit. Also transf. of a play, place, etc., that appeals to a sophisticated person.This is the basis of its current usage. But the implications of deception persist so that it was applied anything falsified or not straightforward, and to books containing alterations in content, binding, intended to deceive.

There are thousands of other words with semantic shifts in common use, but sophisticated is a nice example of a radical change from nasty traits to admired qualities.
Your favourites?

We've spoken earlier about nice. Originally it meant "silly, foolish", from the Latin nescius "ignorant".

It then developed from "timid" (pre-1300); to "fussy, fastidious" (c.1380); to "dainty, delicate" (c.1405); to "precise, careful" (1500s, preserved in such terms as a nice distinction and nice and early); to "agreeable, delightful" (1769); to "kind, thoughtful" (1830). In 16c.-17c. it is often difficult to determine exactly what is meant when a writer uses this word. By 1926, it was pronounced "too great a favorite with the ladies, who have charmed out of it all its individuality and converted it into a mere diffuser of vague and mild agreeableness." [HW Fowler]

My English teacher was in agreement with Fowler, (and with Richard's teacher as well) and banned our use of the word in essays as "too namby-pamby". If a student used it in class he would fulminate against its impreciseness and say that only little old ladies should be allowed to use such a milquetoast word.

quote:

My English teacher was in agreement with Fowler, (and with Richard's teacher as well) and banned our use of the word in essays as "too namby-pamby". If a student used it in class he would fulminate against its impreciseness and say that only little old ladies should be allowed to use such a milquetoast word.

I think I had the American version of the same English teacher (and if not for her, why would I even be here????)

WM

WM

Nice, Yes, we were similarly chastened about using rather . Both words beaten into equine oblivion.

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...from nasty traits to admired qualities

My favorite example is "gay," originally a stereotype implying flouncy behavior,an example where an entirely new coinage would have been more Politically Correct, as the original meaning has almost entirely lost its utility...

...or could result in a lawsuit. Laverne offers, "Alice is very gay"

I objected its not being a good example because "very" is inconsistent. Either you're gay," I countered, "or you're not." "Wrong," she replied, "You can be ac-dc or you can be gay gay"

...as I might have mentioned in an earlier thread. However, as a newly fledged descriptivist I readily acquiesce to the new usage as having become a permanent part of the language

So I think I'll just go tape something with my tivo

Incidentally has anyone encountered a synonym or more accurage expr for "semantic shift"

This message has been edited. Last edited by: dalehileman,

"gay"

I realize you probably won't remember it or read it again, but we had a rather nice [sic] thread on gay and queer. Here's my two cents.

The words "knight" and "knave" underwent interesting semantic shifts.

zm: Thank you for those links, about which as you suggest I had entirely forgotten. Incidentally, I wouldn't have called "gay" polysemous because it has basically only two or three meanings. Nonetheless I like the latter word and shall try to use it wherever I can

Incidentally, I wouldn't have called "gay" polysemous because it has basically only two or three meanings.

To me, polysemy means that a word has multiple meanings. Is two or three not multiple?

I agree with zmjezhd. It doesn't make sense for a polysemous word to have to have dozens of senses. Anything with more than one sense fits the category.

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polysemous

Some dictionaries say multiple meanings, others say many

Incidentally has anyone encountered a synonym or more accurage expr for "semantic shift"[/QUOTE]
I did start this thread with "words with changed meanings". It is accurate but too long, containing 4 words not 2, so its probably a poor synonymical phrase.

"flash drive" is another I deplored before I turned in my credentials as prescriptivist

"Drive" as appiied to PC's used to imply rotating machinery, but now a flash USB drive is a semiconductor chip

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_drive

Through the auspicies of the semantic-shift phenom "drive" will come to mean any means of recording information, from DVR, tape, and even phonograph through printing press, and including the copying by monks of a MS using pen and ink

Eventually "drive" will come to mean any object or concept entailing the transmission of the written, recorded, or spoken word, whereafter, any word will have come to mean anything whatever, eg, by 2098

"Drive the drive to drive my drive and blue drive" will mean, "Please label the DVD on which you wish to record my singing", then transcribe this music to the blue semiconductor chip hanging by my keychain"

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"flash drive" is another I deplored before I turned in my credentials as prescriptivist

The use of the term disk to mean virtual disk has been around at least since the '80s. I remember using software which allowed me to create a RAM disk (or RAM drive) in memory and to read from and write to it as though it were a disk in a disk drive and thus save time. I see no reason why drive can't be used to mean virtual drive. Virtual drives are mass storage devices that plug into a USB port. It little matters that there be little disc swirling about to read/write from/to. To most people it's just a black box that stores their data and which they can quickly plug it into to their or others' computers.

While you claim to be a descriptivist now, you still have an alarmist tendency to write that all words will sometime in the future fall together into one word (a single syllable perhaps like the Sanskrit aum). You assume that semantic change only involves the collapsing of different meanings to one word. And that isn't so.

Computer terminology just moves slightly faster than other professional vocabulary. People I work with still refer to core dumps even though core memory is something only found in museums today. Nobody is confused by the term today, even if some might not be aware of its original meaning. What has happened is that one technology was replaced by another, but the word were simply adapted to refer to the newer technology.

You're aren't upset with the use of file to mean a computer file, or the words read and write to refer to processes that are unperceptible to humans and don't involve paper. Why all the hubbub?

zm: Well said and very interesting; though I would have preferred they had named it, eg, "vrive" or "virsk", etc

The prescriptivist might argue "PC File" is a marginal case but I would call it ok because it represents merely a noun usage of the meaning to arrange or put in order

My position was that a new word be coined when the old would be wildly divergent. Thus "write" and "read" are ok because they have always meant to lay down and take up

But please don't interpret my persiflage as hubbub, as I mean it only to be heuristic

This message has been edited. Last edited by: dalehileman,

The prescriptivist might argue "PC File" is a marginal case but I would call it ok because it represents merely a noun usage of the meaning to arrange or put in order

What's a "PC File"? I've never run across the term. Is it a "politically correct" finger nail file that you can get its pointy head past TSA types in aeropuertos?

Of course, you find my examples marginal, but your own highly amusing. La!