Comment by watwut
5 hours ago
It is not an incorrect meaning, it is that meaning of the word in English is different. What it meant in ancient Greek or in 1805 is not relevant to what it means today.
Words meanings shift over time in all languages. And when languages take sounds from other languages, they also regularly shift their meanings.
No, there's an original and correct meaning. Just because a majority might be wrong, doesn't make them right.
Language evolves. Historical meaning can inform our understanding of modern usage but doesn’t dictate or govern it.
Linguists call this “semantic drift” and it occurs in every language we know of. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_change
Wikipedias first English example is:
Awful – Literally "full of awe", originally meant "inspiring wonder (or fear)", hence "impressive". In contemporary usage, the word means "extremely bad".
Possibly even more directly, the etymological fallacy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymological_fallacy
Just because we can - and should - understand what people mean when they use words wrongly, doesn't mean that words don't have correct meanings. That makes the world poorer, for no benefit at all.
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