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When do the meanings of words officially change?


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I keep seeing "anxiously" used when someone means excited. When it's appropriate for me, I correct the person and explain that it means that you are worried that something will happen.  I am convinced that I am fighting a losing battle.  It is used so often by so many people incorrectly, that I believe the meaning will (if it already hasn't) change over time.  Merriam-Webster already lists "ardently or earnestly wishing" as the third definition.

Will we get an official notice when this happens? 

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4 hours ago, roadsue said:

That would may not be your style, but it’s correct for the situation. It’s specific to the butterflies in your stomach feeling when anticipating a future event. 

That's what I mean....  The word's meaning is slowly changing. It used to be the butterfly feeling of dread. It's been meaning butterflies of excitement for a while now. I don't even have a problem with that. In fact, I always feel like punching the person who says, "Decimate means you killed 10% of the soldiers. A town can't be decimated. Hurrrrr."  

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3 hours ago, Kzoo said:

"When do the meanings of words officially change?"

That depends on what the definition of the word "officially" is.

^^^ This. 

Dictionaries update at different rates. Most will label a non-standard definition as non-standard, colloquial, recent, archaic, etc. 

Outside of a dictionary, word usage watchdog groups tend to keep on top of changes in meaning, for better or for worse. 

Language continually shifts around as users play with the parameters of the system. 

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There are a lot of words that seem to suddenly be used differently.

The correct way to say it is, "I was graduated from school."

But when I was young we used to incorrectly say, "I graduated from school."  I think that was common in most of the country.

The hicks among us used to say something even worse, "I grajiated school," and damn: that's basically what's used today!

Today, nobody uses the "from" anymore and even the media reporters incorrectly say, "I graduated school."

It used to be that a "hack" was an illegal entry in software, etc.

Today, it's often used by the media to describe a clever trick to get something done: "A hack to make your clothes come out of the washer brighter..."

They say languages change about 3% per hundred years, though that may accelerate with modern mass communication where slang can spread faster.

One of my college fraternity brothers at U. of Toronto had escaped from Czechoslovakia in 1968 - where his Slovaks spoke a completely different language than the Czechs, and his family have then moved to Canada - where you have native French and English speakers.  One day, I invited a post-doc, Bob, from San Francisco to the frat house for dinner - we gave a homeless guy a room in exchange for cooking dinner and he was excellent.  Bob and I said a couple of American slang things that we had to translate for the French Canadians at the table.  My Slovak brother said, "Wait a minute. You're from the American East Coast and Bob is from the West Coast and not only use the same language, you even use the same slang?"  He was amazed when we both nodded yes.

 

 

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13 hours ago, MickinMD said:

It used to be that a "hack" was an illegal entry in software, etc.

 Today, it's often used by the media to describe a clever trick to get something done: "A hack to make your clothes come out of the washer brighter..."

 

I though a hack was what the cats do to get rid of a hairball? :dontknow:

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