Many people who feel that
the English language has been dumbed down blame this on America. Some say that
the Americans are to blame for the many slang words and colloquialisms that we
now have. Admittedly, we do tend to borrow a lot of words from American English,
and the globalization of communication has increased this trend. America is a
productive and inventive country, and this productivity and inventiveness have
been extended to its language. To some extent, British English has been
affected by this. There have been many more changes in the meaning throughout
the centuries and they are still occurring. Shall we buckle down
to discuss a few?
1. DECIMATE
The verb ‘decimate’
literally means to kill or destroy one in ten of a set of people. It is derived
from a Latin word meaning 'to kill one in ten of a unit of soldiers who took
part in a mutiny'. The practice was doubtless intended to act as a warning to the
other nine units.
Nowadays there is not
much call for a word meaning 'to kill one in ten people' and the word had moved
on. It came to mean 'to kill a large proportion of', as in:
The disease decimated the
rabbit population of the island.
One tenth is not a huge
proportion of a whole and so possibly there was a mix-up somewhere between one
tenth being killed and one tenth surviving.
The word moved on even
further and came to mean 'to inflict a great deal of damage on something or to
destroy a large number or part of', as in:
The event attracted a lot
of adverse publicity to the area and decimated the tourist industry.
There was a great deal of
opposition to the changes in meaning of DECIMATE. It seems that people did not
want to let go of its connection with ten. It is advisable not to mention a
specific amount when you are using the word.
2. GAY
Many people, older or
not, disliked the widespread introduction of the 'homosexual' meaning of the
English adjective GAY. The word had been used in this meaning in a very limited
way since the 1930s, but it did not reach a wider audience until the late
1960s. Now, it has become such an established meaning of GAY in the
English-speaking world that it has virtually edged out the original use of
‘merry or light-hearted’.
When the 'homosexual'
meaning first came into widespread use, quite a lot of people mourned the
passing of GAY's original happy meaning. However, the word ‘homosexual’ was
more in need of its services than the word ‘merry’ was.
Homosexuality is still a
controversial subject in many parts of the world where it is forbidden and
punishable by law, but the English language moves with the times and people are
happy to use this adjective which has the advantage of being neutral and nonjudgmental.
While there are quite a
few synonyms for GAY in its original sense, there are not very many for the
'homosexual' meaning. Words such as bent and queer are
intended to be offensive. Note that the abstract noun from GAY in its
homosexual sense is gayness, while the abstract noun from
GAY in its merry, light-hearted sense is gaiety.
3. DATA
Data is the plural form
of the word datum, but the singular form datum is
rarely used now. As a plural noun, data was formerly
always used with a plural verb, as in:
The data released by the
bank were carefully studied by financial journalists.
In modern usage, data is
often accompanied by a singular verb, as in:
The data on which the
research was based has been found to be inaccurate.
Formerly, data was
used mainly in a scientific or technical context, but it is
now frequently used with reference to computer information, and so is in more
general use. Data is the regular plural form of the singular
Latin noun datum, but, since Latin is no longer taught in many
British Schools, this fact is not now very well-known. Many people simply did
not know why data should be considered plural, and so its
singular form datum is fading from use.
4. NAUSEOUS
Nauseous is another word
that appears to be undergoing a change, but it is not exactly a word in
everyday use and the change may not yet be very obvious. The adjective
‘nauseous’, in British English, traditionally means ‘nauseating’ or
‘causing nausea’. In other words, it is a formal way of saying something makes
you feel sick or want to vomit, as in:
There was a nauseous
smell of rotten meat coming from the fridge.
In American
English, nauseous means ‘nauseated’ or ‘feeling sick’
or ‘about to vomit’, as in:
Going on a boat trip
always makes me feel nauseous, even when the sea is calm.
The British English
equivalent of American English nauseous is ‘nauseated’,
but users of British English have begun to adopt the American usage, as in:
She says that she felt
nauseous for most of her pregnancy.
5. HISTORIC/HISTORICAL
It looks as though a
change is affecting these two adjectives which are derived from the word history.
The adjectives are historic and historical, and
traditionally they have different meanings.
Strictly speaking, historic refers
to an event that is important enough or memorable enough to be recorded in
history, as in:
The Battle of Waterloo
was a historic victory for the British.
It is now often used
exaggeratedly of an event, often a sporting event, that is not nearly as
important as that description suggests, as in:
The cup final ended in a
historic victory for the English team.
According to traditional
usage, historical simply refers to something that took place
in the past or means ‘based on the study of history’, as in:
Most of the country's
historical records are held in the national archive.
Probably because these
words sound so alike and are so frequently confused, the distinction between
them is beginning to disappear. This is bound to arouse some protest.
6. AGGRAVATE/IRRITATE
Aggravate is another word
with a long-established meaning that has acquired another meaning. This still
arouses protest from people who consider themselves language purists and
guardians of the language. They consider that the only proper meaning of aggravate is to
make worse, as in:
His headache was
aggravated by the loud music playing next door.
This meaning is
admittedly the older, having come into being in the late 16th century. However,
the meaning ‘to irritate or annoy’, as in ‘Those children have been
aggravating the neighbours all day with their noisy games’, is not far
behind in terms of age. It first made an appearance in the early 17th century.
It is this meaning that so irritates (we had better not say 'aggravates') some users, often older users.
7. HOPEFULLY
Changes in the language
are frequently met with great opposition, at least until people get used to
them, or until the loudest of the objectors are no longer with us. The
opposition to the introduction of hopefully was particularly
forceful. I am talking, of course, about hopefully in the
sense of ‘it is to be hoped that’, as in ‘Hopefully, we'll get there
in time for dinner.’ rather than ‘with hope’, as in ‘We
waited hopefully for their arrival until it became clear that they were
not coming.’
Even now, people still
grumble about it, although hopefully, in its later sense, is now
regarded as quite acceptable, except, perhaps, in the most formal of contexts.
The arguments against the acceptance of hopefully in its more
recent meaning were not really convincing. Much was made of the possibility of
ambiguity occurring, especially when the adverb is placed immediately before
the verb, as in:
They will hopefully wait
for us although we're going to be a bit late.
However, the hopefully in
the sentence above is much more likely to mean ‘it is to be hoped that’
and, if there are genuine possibilities of ambiguity, you can change its
position to the beginning of the sentence.
8. FORTUITOUS/FORTUNATE
Signs of change are
particularly likely to go unspotted for a while where the word affected is not
very commonly used. Fortuitous is such a word.
Originally, and in line with its derivation, fortuitous meant happening
by chance or accidental, as in:
She bumped into her old
friend in a completely fortuitous meeting. They hadn't seen each other since
they were at school together.
Because the words sound
quite similar, 'fortuitous' began to become confused with fortunate,
as in:
Meeting her father's old
friend was fortuitous for her because he offered her a job in his company.
And in time, fortuitous began
to be used to describe an event that was not only accidental but also lucky.
9. DISINTERESTED/UNINTERESTED
Until very
recently, disinterested meant the same as impartial or unbiased. It was often confused
with uninterested, meaning ‘not having any interest in something’,
and now it has come to share this meaning.
This has been a gradual
change and many young people are not aware that the distinction between the
meanings of the two words ever existed.
This change has not been
universally welcomed by any means. Many people, especially older people, still
protest about it and claim that changes like this are spoiling what they see as
the purity of the English Language. This is often now referred to as 'a dumbing
down' of the language.
In fact, this particular
example of a language change is actually a reversion to the previous state of
affairs. According to historical dictionaries from the 17th century,
DISINTERESTED could mean the same as UNINTERESTED.
10. DISC/DISK
Something happened to the
word ‘disc’. When this was applied to computers in British English, it
became ‘disk‘, as in hard disk, in line with the American
spelling.
Other meanings retained
the disc spelling in British English, but that is beginning to
change as people get confused. The computer disk is the one we
are most likely to come across in the course of our daily routine, so we have
become used to this spelling.
We now tend to use it
outside the world of computers. For example, it is becoming quite usual for
people to write:
I have a slipped disk.
These words are liable to
cause confusion because of the influence of American English. In British
English, the correct spelling is disc, as in:
He is suffering from a
slipped disc, and his back is very sore.
But when the word is
associated with computers, it becomes disk, as in disk
drive. In American English, the word is generally spelt disk whatever
the meaning. Many British English users are beginning to follow suit.
11. MEDIA
Media is the plural form
of medium when this refers to a means of transmitting
information, as in:
i. Television
is certainly a useful educational medium for children.
ii. The most
popular forms of news media were found to be radio and television.
The word
‘media’ is frequently found in the expression the media, which is
used to refer to the means of mass communication, i.e. newspapers, radio and television.
The use
of media as a singular noun is disliked by some people, but
this use is becoming increasingly common, as in:
The media
is often blamed for making young people body-conscious.
Many people
now do not know that media is the plural form of the Latin
word medium, and see no reason why it should not be used in the
singular.
12. QUEER
The mention
of queer raises an interesting aspect of language and, indeed,
an interesting aspect of people. Queer had the original
meaning of odd or improper. The phrase ‘on
queer street’ meant in financial difficulties.
In the early
20th century, queer came to be used as an informal,
usually derogatory term for homosexual, but it is now used by some gay people
to describe themselves. They are reclaiming and applying to themselves a word
that their critics intended to be insulting. This is quite funny.
13. SEXY
SEXY was
originally an informal word meaning 'causing, or intended to cause, desire', as
in:
She bought
a sexy new dress.
It then went
on to acquire an additional meaning that is not related to sex. This meaning is
'interesting, attractive or exciting', often because of being new or
fashionable, as in:
i. We are
about to launch a sexy new range of kitchen equipment.
ii. They're planning
to pull down the old building and build what they call a sexy new
state-of-the-art office block.
© Joseph Baidoo
© Joseph Baidoo
Joseph Baidoo is a
Ghanaian and is popularly known on social media as Misty Joe.