Need help with the history of a word... (1 Viewer)

[Jason Quillen]

Hey guys,
I'm in a 400 level History seminar called "Murder and Madness in the 19th Century" this semester. Our assignment for this week is to research the history of a word. This can be any word we want, just as long as its meaning has changed over time. The only word we cannot use for this paper is "gay" because the teacher says if she allows it, everyone will do there paper on it as it has changed so much. So I'm looking for suggestions here - ANY word that has changed over time, for a 2 page paper for this class. Any help you all could offer would be appreciated.
Thanks,
JQ

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Jason Quillen wrote:


Quote:



I'm looking for suggestions here - ANY word that has changed over time, for a 2 page paper for this class.






The secret is to find a word that hasn't changed in meaning, pronunciation, usage, etc. over time. They all have, if you look far back enough over their histories.

It would help if you gave some idea of the relevance the paper is supposed to have to the titular topic of the course "Murder and Madness in the 19th Century".

Anyway, pick 'em:

grass
crash
finger (verb)
moon (verb)
blow
down
dog
flaky
hot
crack
make


P.S.: Oh, if gay is forbidden, you could try queer. Goes with German quer.

 

[Jim_F]

In the spirit of Halloween:
evil and
monster

 

[Jason Quillen]

It would help if you gave some idea of the relevance the paper is supposed to have to the titular topic of the course "Murder and Madness in the 19th Century".

Its a little hazey, but we're doing this simply becuase a man that was found legally insane in Britain in the 1800's helped write a lot of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Thanks for the suggestions,
JQ

 

[Darren Davis]

how about dumb? www.dictionary.com has a neat little write-up on the word that should serve as a good starting point.

 

[HienN]

I suggest bad

 

[ace peterson]

How about Heavy. In the spirit of Back to the Future.

 

[Jason Quillen]

Alright guys, I'm heading to the library now to dive into the Oxford English Dictionary for a while. I've written everyones suggestions down and I'll check them all out. Thanks a lot for the help and I'll let you all know what I end up using and how the paper comes out.
(Ace - as a big Back to the Future fan I really like that suggestion)
Thanks again for your help,
JQ

 

[andrew markworthy]

Try to find a copy of a book called Keywords by Raymond Williams (I don't know if got an American printing, but it was reasonably widely available in the UK a few years ago), which goes through the history of various often-used words.

Alternatively, try the *full* Oxford English Dictionary, which will give a history of the changing meanings of aword, usually with quotations to illustrate this.

A couple of sugestions:

nice

hello.

Both have had quite surprising changes of meaning.

 

[Adil M]

How about "fag?"
It's had some interesting changes over the times.
I am serious and not being an idot.

 

[Jeff Braddock]

conversation

 

[KyleK]

Faggot - used to mean bundle of wood
Molest - used to just mean "bother"
Hope that helps...
Kyle

 

[David Von Pein]

How about ..... Cool.

 

[Lee L]

I actually wrote a short paper about the word Faggot in a college english class as well. Interesting history some words have.

 

[David Von Pein]

a short paper about the word Faggot...

Link Removed are delicious! Especially with peas.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

It's also the Italian word for "bassoon". Check an orchestral score.