Freak used to mean someone who stood out, usually in a good way. For example, in Gawain and the Green Knight, the valiant knights are described as freaks.
I’m curius whether words that mean “commonplace” or “ordinary” now were superlatives back in the 1910s or 1920s. I’ve seen ads and catalogs from that era with testimonials like:
“I find the Oldsmobile brand of auto-mobiles to be completely satisfactory.”
or
“The Belvedere house from Sears has proven to be most adequate for our family.”
Satisfactory? Adequate? Certainly not glowing recommendations by today’s standards.
Liberal
Not really. It originally applied only to Africans, was later expanded to mean anyone not European, and has since returned to its (descriptive, not PC) meaning.
“Some hae meat an canna eat
and some hae none that want it;
but we hae meat an we can eat
an so the Lord be thankit.” 
A librarian friend of mine informs me that the OED has six and a half pages of definitions for the word nice
In Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” Mr. Scrooge warns Bob Cratchitt that if he isn’t careful, he may lose his "situation’ [job]. In the more recent Patrick Stewart version, they change it to job, so as not to confuse us :eek: (please!).
Sacred is an interesting word. In Middle English it was simply the past participial of sacren, meaning to consecrate and set aside as holy.
Petty hasn’t changed too much in meaning over the years, but it has changed in spelling. It is actually the Anglicized form of the French petit, meaning something of a trifling matter–originally only a legal usage.
I realize there is no way to list all of the words that have changed this way. But I was curious how many people could come up with just off the top of their heads :).
If you enjoy this sort of thing get thee to an Oxford ENglish Dictionary (available on a CD, or two volumes with a magnifying glass, or in 20+ volumes). It starts with the oldest definition of each word and then moves through the centuries.
One of my favorite is “engine” which (as I recall) starts as ability or talent, then tool, then machine, then choochoo.
Fifteen Iguana
My 10th grade English teacher told our class that she remembered when “terrific” meant terrifying, scary, as in: “That rollercoaster was terrific!” Now it just means fun, enjoyable, with out any connection to fear, as in: “Audiobottle sure is a terrific poster!”
-Audiobottle
And yet anoter meaning for engine coming up:
From whatis.com :
And yet “another” one not checking preview. :sigh:
Didn’t havoc originally mean “no quarter”? As in, take no prisoners, kill everyone? Now it seems to mean general disorder. It is either this one, or another word, that means basically, “kill every fourth person.” Also latin. Anyone know?
There are too many right answers for this to fit into GQ. Off to MPSIMS.
I think there is room for at least one more example.
Ignoramus is an interesting word. It originally meant “we take no notice”, and was sent back by a grand jury when it could find no grounds for an indictment. Then it appeared in George Ruggle’s 1615 play of the same name (I’m getting all this info from my dictionary, which has a little summarized story about it). And now of course it means someone who doesn’t know something, although the last place I actually heard it used was on the Three Stooges.
BTW, havoc was originally only used in the phrase “cry havoc”, meaning to sound the alert that a war has started (in my dictionary, this could either be an alert to start the pillaging or simply a warning). In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar Mark Anthony says “Cry havoc! and let slip the dogs of war.”
One of my college professors loved to point out that the word great really doesn’t have any meaning anymore. It’s just a generic “good” now.
How was that movie? Great!
My team won. Great!
Wanna have sex? Great!
…and so on.
Another interesting word is hope. At one time, mainly a religious word, it meant to wish for, but at the same time have faith that it will occur. But it also took on the colloquial meaning of simply to wish for, to desire.
Now the original meaning has almost completely been replaced by the colloquial meaning–even in formal usage.
E.g., “We hope the will soon be an end to the violence in the Middle East” means we strongly wish for and desire it–but we don’t necessarily have faith that is what will happen.