BS: old words - new meanings

Subject: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Bert
Date: 22 Feb 11 - 03:52 AM

The word is marathon

Old meaning - a long race
New meaning - an excuse to show reruns all afternoon.


There must be plenty more....

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 22 Feb 11 - 06:38 AM

Old meaning - Customer Service Helpline
New meaning - an opportunity to listen to thirty minutes of Vivaldi, Frank Sinatra and/or 'soothing' panpipes

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 22 Feb 11 - 07:27 AM

issue - was an edition of a magazine for instance

has become:

ishyooooooooo - a problem!!!!!

gay - was happy or jolly

now - homosexual

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: DMcG
Date: 22 Feb 11 - 07:34 AM

Old meaning - 'making this absolutely clear'
New meaning - 'avoiding answering the question'

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 22 Feb 11 - 07:45 AM

Decimated old meaning - reduced by ten percent.

new meaning - reduced to ten percent.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 22 Feb 11 - 08:28 AM

'Sanctioned' - it used to mean 'approved'

now it means 'punished'

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 22 Feb 11 - 08:31 AM

'Wicked' used to mean extremely evil
Wicked now = brilliant, wonderful, fantastic.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 22 Feb 11 - 09:09 AM

Not all these are new meanings; some have always co-existed, tho apparently contradictory, like 'sanction', which has always had the dual meanings of 'permit' and of 'apply a sanction, or preventative measure, to'.

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: MarkS
Date: 22 Feb 11 - 10:14 AM

Niggardly used to mean cheap or stingy. Just ask Hamlet!
Today it is said to be a racial slur.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 22 Feb 11 - 10:17 AM

"For your convenience..."

Old meaning: It will be more convenient for you
New meaning: It will be more convenient for us

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: harmonic miner
Date: 22 Feb 11 - 11:15 AM

"From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler - PM
Date: 22 Feb 11 - 07:45 AM

Decimated old meaning - reduced by ten percent.

new meaning - reduced to ten percent."

really?

If the price was €100 and it is now €90, it has been reduced BY 10%
If the price was €100 and it is now €10, it has been reduced TO 10%
Has this changed?

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: DMcG
Date: 22 Feb 11 - 11:28 AM

Yep. In Roman times, to decimate a village was to kill one in ten. Now, it is more generally thought of as only one in ten left alive.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 22 Feb 11 - 11:47 AM

Sex used to be what you are (male or female), and an activity you partake in. Gender was a linguistic term noting (in those languages that made such distinction) whether a noun was male, female or neither..

Now sex is just the activity, while the linguistic term has been transferred to the physical being. BTW, I always cross out the word gender on applications, and replace it with the word sex. Someday where it asks sex I may answer either 'yes' or 'sometimes'.

Decimated, in classic times, meant to 'kill every tenth person'...prisoners of war, rebels, group punishment for disobeying orders, etc. Now it usually means wholesale slaughter regardless of the actual percentage killed, or severe cuts as in economic programs.

In my lifetime (not inconsiderable as lifetimes go, as I am beyond the Biblical three score and ten) sanctioned has always had the dual meaning, but sanctions (n.) has always meant punishmnet.

Likewise 'issue' has always had both meanings.

Gay, while always having the two meanings, now pretty much seems to be exclusively.

In these times of ferment, it is perhaps interesting to note that te word 'magazine' (from the Arabic) has meant a storage of armaments, and a booklet (storage) of written and pictorial articles.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 22 Feb 11 - 07:32 PM

Outrageous

Old meaning: causing public outrage, like a serial murderer or child-molester.
New meaning: In quirkily bad taste, like appearing slightly drunk at the Golden Globe Awards.


Awesome

Old meaning: awe-inspiring, like the Grand Canyon, or the launch of an Atlas missile.
New meaning: convenient, like receiving a coupon for a free liter of Coke.


Incredible

Old meaning: Inspiring disbelief or mistrust, like a failed political speech.
New meaning: Inspiring belief or trust, like a successful political speech.


Infamous

Old meaning: Egregiously evil, like Hitler or Pol Pot.
New meaning: Famous for showing one's naughty bits, like Paris Hilton or Brett Favre.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 22 Feb 11 - 11:56 PM

'Love' used to mean a state of being where one would lay down his life for another for the rest of their lives....
..now you can 'make love' for one night, while thinking of new ways to get away, as fast as you can, after you get off!

GfS

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 23 Feb 11 - 12:35 AM

John on Sunset Coast, disagree re 'gay': homosexual usage was confined to being an in-word among the gay community themselves from probably, about late 30s [see Peter Wildeblood's account of his notorious 50s trial with Lord Montagu and another, Against The Law 1955]. It was about 60s that it broke thru into mainstream, and, for all practical purposes, made previous main meaning no longer usable except defiantly, or in an older context such as singing The Gay Fusilier; so that 'homosexual' is now the primary meaning given in Chambers Dict, and others are labelled as 'obsolete': a sad example of loss of a useful and pleasant word to the depredations of an axe-grinding interest group ~ my objection, let me stress is not to homoexuality, towards which I have no negative feelings whatever, but only to linguistic impoverishment.

'Niggardly' still ONLY means stingy. Except to the ignorant, it has no racial connotations whatever, having no connection except a slight similarity in sound to another, taboo, word.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Ebbie
Date: 23 Feb 11 - 01:25 AM

In the song 'How Great Thou Art', there is a phrase that jars every time I hear it: something something 'awesome wonder'.

Surely the wonder isn't awesome? Surely it is 'aweFILLED wonder'? Anyway, that is how I sing it.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 23 Feb 11 - 01:38 AM

or, "Now we don our gay apparel
    Fa-la-la la la-la-la la "

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Feb 11 - 03:44 AM

50+ years ago a group of traditional musicians living around Lake Charm, Victoria, got together to play for dances & called themselves the Gay Chalmers. They are still performing, tho no doubt today some folks find their name amusing.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Ringer
Date: 23 Feb 11 - 04:31 AM

Pedantry warning (but then they are probably only pedants reading this thread anyway): John on the Sunset Coast, if you're going to differentiate sex and gender (one of my own bêtes noires, I have to admit), you should really categorise nouns as masculine, feminine or neuter rather than "male, female or neither."

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 23 Feb 11 - 04:41 AM

English nouns don't have gender. Whatever remnants of gender there are in English are confined to pronouns, which should probably be common, femininine and neuter. But it is probably true to say that we don't have gender, only sex.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 23 Feb 11 - 05:08 AM

Although English nouns are all neuter it is still fairly common to use 'she' and 'her' when talking about ships as well as, sometimes, cars or countries.

A word that can cause misunderstandings these days is 'partner'.
This used to mean a business partner, or maybe a dancing partner. Nobody would have thought it was any other kind of relationship. Now, if you introduce someone as your 'partner' people are likely to assume it is a bedroom rather than a business or dancing arrangement.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 23 Feb 11 - 05:17 AM

Oops - no, they are not all neuter.
'Man', 'woman', 'girl', 'boy', 'cow', 'hen', 'stallion', 'gander' etc. are all nouns. Though 'actor' is now used for those who would previously have been called actresses, and few people would talk about a 'poetess'.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 23 Feb 11 - 05:47 AM

My son thought it was hilarious when I announced one day that I used to enjoy doing the 'Gay Gordon's' I had to explain that it was a Scottish ballroom dance.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 23 Feb 11 - 05:52 AM

They're all common - look at the effect they have on adjectives.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: GUEST,Big Norman Voice
Date: 23 Feb 11 - 06:40 AM

Old words yes/no
New word   absolutely

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 23 Feb 11 - 07:26 AM

Though 'actor' is now used for those who would previously have been called actresses

Wrong. I always say actor or actress, similarly waiter or waitress. Oddly enough, I believe that the Spanish for dentist is feminine!!!

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 23 Feb 11 - 09:17 AM

Spanish words ending -ista can be masculine.

I didn't say: "'actor' is now used exclusively for those who would previously have been called actresses". Plenty of people still make a distinction, but plenty of others now use 'actor' for either sex.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Ed T
Date: 23 Feb 11 - 10:15 AM

"Hot" is the new "cool"?

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 23 Feb 11 - 10:30 AM

Flibbertigibbet

Old meaning: A devil or sprite of evil intent*
New meaning: Someone who is flighty or scatterbrained

*Var: In Ireland frequently spelled flibBERTIEgibbet

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Amos
Date: 23 Feb 11 - 10:49 AM

"No problem" once meant easily solvable; now it means "you're welcome".

"To be" once meant to exist or to exist as something such as a role or job. Now it mean's to say, or do, or feel, as in "I am like 'Huh?'".

A

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 23 Feb 11 - 11:20 AM

In the seventies there was a reading scheme for juniors called 'Gay Way' and not one of my then pupils was aware of any other connotation of the word. We also used the word to describe a certain 'fault' in a pedigree dog whose tail curled up and over, a 'gay tail'. In the Brownies, one group of six in our Pack was called the FAIRIES, and they sang "We're the Fairies, glad and gay..." I say all this to show that for many people the word 'gay' coming to mean homosexual began quite late, I should say in the eighties. But perhaps in the gay community it was used long before, as you say, MtheGM.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 23 Feb 11 - 11:54 AM

Michael(MtheGM), I may be missing something, but I don't find we disagree much, if at all. I acknowledge that "gay" formerly both connoted happiness, euphoria, etc., and homosexuality (especially among men). I believe, although I have not studied it closely, that 'gay' was a code term used in Victorian England for homosexual men. Recently, you pick the time frame, it has come to mean homosexuality almost exclusively.

I have heard younger folks laugh at any previous use of the word, as 'the gay 90s', 'I had a gay old time' or 'gay caballero' for example. I do use the word gay occasionally to mean happy; am I being obstinate in doing so, or am I utilizing an enriched vocabulary? Likewise, I sometimes say homosexual as opposed to gay. Same question. Certainly both can mean the same thing, but only one is not mistakable as to its referent.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings - Presently
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 23 Feb 11 - 11:58 AM

Several have noted that words do change over time, sometimes retaining both meanings, sometimes obsoleting an older meaning. Example:

Presently (former sole meaning) = soon. George is presently going to San Francisco.

Presently (current, more frequent use) = now, in progress. George is presently going to San Francisco.

So, is George going to travel soon? Is George en route now? We need,
some context to determine what George is doing.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 23 Feb 11 - 12:44 PM

How about "terrible"
Used to mean inspiring terror ("he has lloosed the fateful lightning from His terrible swift sword"
Now means very poor.

Similarly, "Awful"

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings--Richard Lederer
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 23 Feb 11 - 01:01 PM

Mr. Lederer is a columnist and author of several books re: the anomalies of (American) English.

Example:

"We Park on Driveways, but we Drive on Parkways"

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 23 Feb 11 - 01:06 PM

In England 'Parkway' is often used to name a new, out-of-town railway station. Presumably because they hope commuters will drive to the station and park in the expensive British Rail (or whatever it is now) car park.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Feb 11 - 08:51 PM

compromise
com-pro-mize archaic No longer in republican use, the meaning long ago refered to a meeting of minds.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: maple_leaf_boy
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 09:16 AM

Sick: another word for illness. Now, another word for awesome. ("That
was a sick guitar solo.")

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Bill D
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 11:23 AM

"Flibbertigibbet

Old meaning: A devil or sprite of evil intent*
New meaning: Someone who is flighty or scatterbrained"

Interesting... I remember my English Lit. professor in college, 50 years ago, remarking in 'semi-jest' that an old word for a devil was now commonly used to refer to sorority girls. 'Some' of the room laughed.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 01:03 PM

Many of these usages are just temp slang: e.g. above 'sick' for awesome is not a million miles from the use a few years back of 'wicked' with similar connotation, which I think is now pretty well obsolete among the trendies, & will soon be followed into obsolescence, I predict, by this use of 'sick'.

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 04:24 PM

John on the S.C. commented, in part:

Gay, while always having the two meanings, now pretty much seems to be exclusively.

Always?   I never heard it used in the so-called "modern" way until sometime in the early 50s, when I was in my mid-twenties.

Okay, perhaps I lived a sheltered life before that. Does anyone personally know of its use before that time?

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 04:36 PM

Well perhaps 'always' is a bit of a stretch (and the sentence incomplete in haste), but it always has been so used in my consciousness of homosexuality. It also was used in some Victorian literature, as well as pre-code (1934) Hollywood, films both eras being before my birth. BTW my conscious memory of the word is more or less the same time period you mention.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Lighter
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 05:56 PM

"Wicked" is alive and well in America, particularly, it seems, in the Boston area.

It also means "very." As do "crazy" and "stupid."

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Joe_F
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 06:25 PM

I have, by now, a fairish list of words that I refuse to use in the currently fashionable senses: abuse, agenda, blockbuster, contradiction, define, denial, disorder, existential, feel, icon, identity, impact, incredible, international, issue, legendary, personality, potential, price tag, product, reinvent, relatively, resolve, showcase, signature, who

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Penny S.
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 06:36 PM

"Satisfactory" in the use of the British schools inspectorate, Ofsted, now means "not good enough, needs to improve", or in other words, "unsatisfactory". To be satisfactory in the old meaning, a school has to be "good". A quite deliberate change to make teachers feel like failures. As in they failed to teahc future inspectors to use language meaningfully.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Deckman
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 06:59 PM

This subject compells me to tell of an amusing event that happened about four years ago. Don Firth and I were singing a concert in Seattle, and my 16 year old granddaughter was in the audience. Don sang his wonderful version of "The Frozen Logger", written by the late Jim Stevens.

I happenned to watching grand daughter's face as Don sang the line:

"He never shaved a whisker,
From off of his horny hide ..."

Grand daughter reacted to the word, her mother started laughing, and I almost fell off my chair! True story (how words change) bob

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 08:15 PM

I wasn't sure which thread to post this on...and it didn't look like it was being visited, too much....but....
New words, old song????

Have Fun,
GfS

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 11:35 PM

"Wicked" is alive and well in America, particularly, it seems, in the Boston area.

It also means "very." As do "crazy" and "stupid." ===

Wow! Wicked! Likewise sick! and a gas! and the gear! and the cat's whiskers! And smashing! And spiffing!

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 25 Feb 11 - 04:51 AM

Describing someone as 'sad' not in the emotion but choice of film, music or interests i.e. train/aeroplane spotting or me watching Ray Harryhausen movies.

'Wicked' is also used in a sarcastic way (by my son) describing a boring event, family get together, venue or film later described as 'really kicking - not!'

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 25 Feb 11 - 06:19 AM

Never come across 'parkway' used to describe what I would call a 'park and ride'. Round here a parkway is more like a bypass.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 25 Feb 11 - 06:22 AM

Satisfactory

old meaning - up to standard, good

new meaning - only just above poor

Average

old meaning - somewhere in the middle of where most results fall

new meaning - poor

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 25 Feb 11 - 06:26 AM

The Parkway here in Bristol is a railway station.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 25 Feb 11 - 06:44 AM

"gay" is also used now by young people with more or less the same meaning as the new meaning of "sad", as a put-down word with no sexual reference. It seems quite possible that this will mean that "gay" meaning "homosexual" will in time cease to be seen as acceptable.

Perhaps the older meaning, lighthearted/jolly, will reassert itself before we're done.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: PHJim
Date: 25 Feb 11 - 11:45 AM

The word "reality" has come to mean "placing people in artificial situations and manipulating their actions while recording their actions and reactions on video".

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 25 Feb 11 - 11:54 AM

This use of 'reality' reminds me of the specialist usage in recording of the word "live", to mean "recorded during a performance before an audience". Are we ∴ to take it that you have to be dead before you can record in a studio?!

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: PHJim
Date: 25 Feb 11 - 02:19 PM

How about the word "acoustic"? Many folks call a plugged in flat top guitar with a piezo pick-up "acoustic". On the TV show Unplugged, the drums were the only instruments that weren't plugged in.
I suppose even a guitar (or banjo, mandolin, ukulele, dulcimer...) being played into a mic is not really acoustic in the original meaning of the word.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 25 Feb 11 - 08:32 PM

And then there's "folk"............

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Bert
Date: 25 Feb 11 - 08:57 PM

Nice one Dick.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 25 Feb 11 - 11:21 PM

==being played into a mic is not really acoustic in the original meaning of the word. ==

... and of course the word 'original' here is misused, applied to a new meaning, and by no means the original one. It was a very late adaptation of 'acoustic' to designate unamplified instruments... A bit like the use of 'live', come to think of it ~~ as if amplified instruments didn't make any sound!

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 25 Feb 11 - 11:38 PM

-'actor' is now used for those who would previously have been called actresses-

'Wrong' rejoins Bonzo above. 'I always say actor or actress'.
===
Not entirely wrong, Bonzo. There is a campaign in both elements of the acting profession & some of the press, notably The Guardian, to abolish 'actress' as discriminatory; which I consider grossly mistaken, because 'actress' in fact indicates an essential distinction, regarding both identity & the parts played. In what way do these trendy PC well-meaners think it would be any sort of progress to have to redesignate Oscars, Baftas, &c, as being awarded for "male actor" or "female actor"? The distinction would remain in practical terms, so the linguistic and semantic distinction must remain also, as required to express this. That is what words are for.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: PHJim
Date: 26 Feb 11 - 07:53 PM

Why not just have a best actor award?
Granted, there are some parts that must have a female actor or a male actor, just as some parts must be played by an old or a young actor. 'Old' in fact indicates an esential distinction, regarding both identity and the parts played.
Maybe we should have Oscars, Baftas, etc awarded for "old actor" or "young actor" or "tall actor","short actor","heavy actor", "skinny actor"...

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: GUEST,Dáithí
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 04:33 AM

Refute now apparently means deny; disinterested now means uninterested; people (standard, in USA?)say different than when they mean different from....languages change, but sometimes nice (!!!) distictions and nuances are thereby lost.
D

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 05:07 AM

Rather than 'different from', or even 'different than', a lot of people now say 'different to'. But at least I know what they mean.
Problems arise when they say 'compared to', which means the things being compared are alike, when what they really mean is 'compared with'.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: GUEST,Dáithí
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 07:47 AM

Yep, topsie - couldn't agree more; shall I compare thee to a summer's day...?!
D

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: saulgoldie
Date: 01 Mar 11 - 09:49 AM

I may have missed this one as I scanned the thread. But "free" has no meaning, whatsoever, anymore. It usta mean "having no cost or obligation." Now...

Saul

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Mar 11 - 05:33 PM

'Hot' (slang) once meant stolen.
'Hot' (slang) now means 'the latest must-have'.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 02 Mar 11 - 01:18 AM

Must make the point that not all new words *replace* the previous ones [as 'gay', e.g., we agree & so does Chambers Dict, has probably done to a great extent]; rather that in most instances the old and new meanings continue to co-exist side by side; so that, to take Q's last example, 'hot' can now have both the meanings he attributes to it, + of course many others, inc the original non-metaphorical or -idiomatic one of 'high in temperature'; the meaning in any instance being hopefully determined by the context.

And that usage of 'hopefully' will furnish a further example to add to this thread, will it not?...

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 02 Mar 11 - 06:02 AM

One usage which has driven out the old is "nig-nog". In my army days, it was slang for a new recruit who hadn't learned the ropes. Now it is an unsayable variant of the word which must never be spoken.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 02 Mar 11 - 01:58 PM

weird - used to mean fate or destiny. Apparently when Shak. referred to the witches in MacBeth as 'the weird sisters,' the word began to mean 'bizarre or supernatural.' Now it's been weakened to 'strange.'

desultory conversation used to be conv. that flitted from one topic to another. Now it means conversation with no vivacity or interest.

'comprise' is now so mixed up that I never use it.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 02 Mar 11 - 03:52 PM

"Chemotherapy" has changed its meaning, and, oddly, it has become more specific, whereas it's more common for words to change by becoming more general or vague.

It formerly meant "treatment of any disease with chemicals." Now it means "treatment of cancer with chemicals."

Once upon a time, the conventional treatments for cancer were surgery and radiation. When effective drugs were first introduced, doctors explained them to their patients by calling them "chemotherapy" to distinguish them from the more familiar treatments. To doctors, it was an old word, but to most patients, it was a new word, so it came to be associated with cancer. Nowadays doctors avoid using "chemotherapy" to mean anything but treatment for cancer, to avoid alarming their patients.

Can you imagine going to a doctor for toenail fungus, and being told "We'll start you on a regimen of chemotherapy right away"?

Also, if you look in old dictionaries, you'll see that it's pronounced "kehmo-." I don't know how it changed to "keemo-" but that's all you hear nowadays.

Subject: RE: BS: old words - new meanings
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 10:34 AM

Crazy used to mean mad or insane but now describes something exciting and colourful.

Sexy doesn't necessarily mean in the physical sense either, it can describe the design of a building, car or anything that is pleasing to the eye or touch.