Comment by BlueTemplar
3 months ago
It's weird that you would argue "people won't change" at the same time as you point out how word meanings change.
Have you forgotten how XML was all the rage not that long ago ?
Also, specific people might not change, but they do retire/die, and new generations might have different opinions...
> It's weird that you would argue "people won't change" at the same time as you point out how word meanings change.
"People won't change" does not imply "people don't change"; "I observe change" does not imply "I cause change."
Dante's Paradiso XVII.37–42 (Hollander translation): "Contingent things [...] are all depicted in the Eternal Sight, / yet are by that no more enjoined / than is a ship, moved downstream on a river's flow, / by the eyes that mirror it."
> Also, specific people might not change, but they do retire/die, and new generations might have different opinions.
Yes, that's certainly the case. "Science advances one funeral at a time." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck%27s_principle
People change organically but people can't be easily changed inentionally.
I'm not suggesting that going back to the original meaning is a bad thing, in fact more power to those who are attempting this. I'm just suggesting that instead of moving the mountain, they could just go around it.