What words have changed common meaning?

[theelectricnorth]

I am currently watching White Christmas, and it has got me thinking about words that have changed what people would first think of when they hear it, compared to what they would have thought 50+ years ago (or any time really).

For example, according to merriam-webster dictionary, 'gay' means:

1. Of, relating to, or characterised by sexual or romantic attraction to people of one's same sex
2. Happily excited

Now, most people I know, these days, will automatically relate 'gay' to definition number 1, however this wasn't the case x many years ago. So, I was wondering, what other words do you know that have changed 'main' definition over time?

(The part of the film that got my brain going in case anyone was wondering... Judy and Phil were talking about engagement:
Judy: Of course, it's got to be a man.
Phil: That's an absolute must.
Judy: No, no, no. I mean a mature man. You know, one with talent and experience. One that's witty, gay, charming, attractive.)

I call our cat Puss frequently.
In the excellent Christmas film It's a Wonderful Life, Mary tells her mother that George Bailey is "making violent love" to her. I'm pretty sure she meant wooing, trying to neck

So how do Americans use nonplussed? I always think of it from the French as no more, this makes no sense, non plus!

I’m endlessly fascinated by semantic shifts - I love how language evolves and changes, and how many clues there are about your age and region in your speech.

When dd says something is “sick” I like to make her cringe by saying “you mean it’s deadly?” which makes just as little sense.

This article is interesting
https://ideas.ted.com/20-words-that-once-meant-something-very-different/

One thing I've noticed. Saying "Going for food" instead of for breakfast, lunch or dinner or for something to eat. Irrationally irritates me. Somehow it sounds greedy in my head!

And girl meant child of either sex didn't it?

It did, yes.

That one's interesting, as when the word was in common use in the 80s to mean an air-headed young woman, the male variation 'himbo' was introduced and gained some social purchase.

Quite weird that people were seeking to masculinise an already-masculine term.

Edit: I should have refreshed, as Catsmere had already made the same point!

What you do in your own home is entirely your own business - and I am sure you aren't trying to be rude in any way; but you must realise that, if you were to shout "PUSSY!" in the garden or park - even when calling your cat - people would stare at you.

Like it or not, the word - like many others (as shown on this thread) has very much changed its usage in society. I presume you wouldn't now compliment somebody wearing a brightly-coloured dress on her lovely 'gay' frock; or describe a very witty remark that somebody made as his 'perfectly-timed ejaculation' - however well-intentioned and innocent you may be?

That is the definition of decimated. Historically it meant to reduce by 10%, as used in Roman times where they would kill one in ten of a group of people as a punishment to the others.

Gay is interesting, it was used with its original meaning but also as slur, the gay community introduced the acronym (actually it should be a backronym), "good as you" in order to reclaim it and they have been so successful it is now the main meaning.

The 'good as you' story, like 99% of acronyms/backronyms presented as etymology, is a myth.

As 'not bothered, not fussed'.

Puss is fine, I think.

Pussy has been on the slide since Sean Connery's pronunciation of 'Poosy Galore', and Mrs Slocombes pussy, I reckon.

I hate the way that word has been taken over to mean vulva. I dislike all the slang for women's genitals, but having made a term of endearment for a cat into a word you can't say without someone sniggering is the worst.

"With that being said" used to mean "on the other hand" but Americans seem to have changed it to mean "Now we've got that out of the way"
Really irritates me when they say it like that on YouTube videos.

Also, when I was growing up 'Queer' used to mean strange/weird/odd but now it seems to be a common term for being Gay? How did that happen? Does that mean that gay people are strange/weird or odd?

It’s been used in psychiatry since the late 1800’s

Queer was used as a derogatory term for homosexual decades ago. There's a scene in The Full Monty where Dave uses the old line "There's nowt so queer as folk" and because he's unthinkingly used it about the two characters who've just come out, it gets Gaz spluttering with laughter.

It's still a slur - more likely to be used by "spicy straights" than actual homosexual people ime.

People on here saying that when you were growing up queer mean strange and gay meant happy-how old are you? Because I'm 60-and queer has been a slur and gay has meant homosexual all my adult life.

Well, "I feel a little queer" was always good for a quick laugh in the 1960s. That was because both meanings were in common use.

They still are, I suppose. You could say "that's queer" instead of odd or weird, and be understood even if thought quaint. Some of the younger word-police might get offended, I don't know.

Actually, weird has changed, too, hasn't it? It's lost its association with fate, soothsaying and the like. The soothsayers probably were weird, though!

In psychiatry, yes, but not in common parlance.

I'm 62, the meanings have shifted from being both their originals plus the slur and comedic usages in childhood (I expect I missed meany double entendres on radio 4 but 'what a gay day' perhaps was the public watershed in the U.K.) ,becoming the main meaning in the case of gay and (i hope!) no longer in any way a slur. 'Queer' is still more mixed - the 'queer theory' type of thing 'queering' sexuality but other things too if they can, still a slur which older gay and lesbian people dont like, and I'm pretty sure still retaining its original use at least in the North.

Also, when I was growing up 'Queer' used to mean strange/weird/odd but now it seems to be a common term for being Gay? How did that happen? Does that mean that gay people are strange/weird or odd

I’m in my 60s and when I was young I knew that if a man was referred to as a queer it meant that he was a homosexual. In those days, gay men were widely regarded as being strange, weird and odd.

Despite that, the word still also retains its original meaning for me and many people I know.

'Queer' was a very offensive term for someone homosexual when I was growing up - this recent so-called reclaiming of the word is awful. It's almost as offensive as the n-word to me. It still takes me aback when I hear the word used to casually, just like people do with the n-word or the p-word

On the bimbo / himbo front:

Shero.

We already have "heroine."

That's an unnecessary neologism rather than a change of meaning. IMO they're not as bad as they aren't degrading ability to communicate.