There are entire fields of study devoted to sorting out how meaning is developed & assigned... and changed.

Semantics, linguistics, 'ordinary language' philosophy, philology.... with other fields poking their noses in at times. Try some Ludwig Wittgenstein if you want to delve deeply: "Was heisst es, was ein Speil ist?" ("What does it mean 'to know what a game is'?"
His examinations of similar questions are not for the faint-hearted.