Villain
Colibri
September 1, 2015, 4:42pm
3
Boor, originally just farmer (like Dutch “Boer”).
Deeg
September 1, 2015, 8:15pm
5
How about Mickey Mouse as a verb?
Silly , of all things:
silly (adj.) Old English gesælig “happy, fortuitous, prosperous” (related to sæl “happiness”), from Proto-Germanic *sæligas (cognates: Old Norse sæll “happy,” Old Saxon salig, Middle Dutch salich, Old High German salig, German selig “blessed, happy, blissful,” Gothic sels “good, kindhearted”), from PIE *sele- “of good mood; to favor,” from root *sel- (2) “happy, of good mood; to favor” (cognates: Latin solari “to comfort,” Greek hilaros “cheerful, gay, merry, joyous”).
This is one of the few instances in which an original long e (ee) has become shortened to i. The same change occurs in breeches, and in the American pronunciation of been, with no change in spelling. [Century Dictionary]
The word’s considerable sense development moved from “happy” to “blessed” to “pious,” to “innocent” (c. 1200), to “harmless,” to “pitiable” (late 13c.), “weak” (c. 1300), to “feeble in mind, lacking in reason, foolish” (1570s). Further tendency toward “stunned, dazed as by a blow” (1886) in knocked silly, etc. Silly season in journalism slang is from 1861 (August and September, when newspapers compensate for a lack of hard news by filling up with trivial stories). Silly Putty trademark claims use from July 1949.
"happy, fortuitous, prosperous" (related to sæl "happiness"), from Proto-Germanic… See origin and meaning of silly.
The opposite happened with Nice
nice (adj.) 13c., “foolish, stupid, senseless,” from Old French nice (12c.) “careless, clumsy; weak; poor, needy; simple, stupid, silly, foolish,” from Latin nescius “ignorant, unaware,” literally “not-knowing,” from ne- “not” (see un-) + stem of scire “to know” (see science). “The sense development has been extraordinary, even for an adj.” [Weekley] – from “timid” (pre-1300); to “fussy, fastidious” (late 14c.); to “dainty, delicate” (c. 1400); to “precise, careful” (1500s, preserved in such terms as a nice distinction and nice and early); to “agreeable, delightful” (1769); to “kind, thoughtful” (1830).
"foolish, ignorant, frivolous, senseless," from Old French nice (12c.) "careless, clumsy;… See origin and meaning of nice.
My HS English teacher insisted that we not use nice too much, and that we were using it in the wrong way. Now we know.
Napier
September 1, 2015, 9:03pm
8
Anything for which there’s been a euphemism treadmill.
Bitch was originally a term for a female dog. DO NOT USE IT TODAY in any context.
Locrian:
How about “gay”?
I never saw a true gay bitch,
Cretin. (Orginally meant Christian)
“Yid” is a transliteration of the Yiddish word for “Jew” and is obviously not derogatory in Yiddish. But it’s considered a slur (though a minor one) in English, especially when used by non-Jews.
Lumpy
September 2, 2015, 1:46am
16
Uncle Tom: in the original novel, a deeply religious pacifist who refuses to repay violence with violence. In later usage, a servile co-dependent of white oppression.
Queer originally met strange. Queer Nation aside, many people still consider it a insult.
High Maintenance.
Used to be, if you had a car that was high maintenance, it was because it was an expensive, fancy sports car and it cost a lot to keep it running. The good thing was, so long as you kept it up, it was a hell of a car.
Nowadays, High Maintenance (as applied to girlfriends)? Not so good.
Colibri
September 3, 2015, 5:58pm
19
CalMeacham:
Silly , of all things:
Also awful, which originally meant “inspiring awe,” and artificial, which meant “artful.”
The story that a British monarch referred to St. Paul’s cathedral as “amusing, awful, and artificial,” and meant it as a compliment, is mainly apocryphal, although the “artificial” part seems to be true.
Wallaby
September 4, 2015, 2:37am
20
In Australia, the term ‘average’ when used to describe certain things is somewhat derogatory.
It maintains its original meaning in dedicated statistical discussion only.
If you say ‘The rainfall for the month was about average’ it means exactly what you say - there are numbers involved
However, ‘The weather had been a bit average last month’ means something different.
