William Shakespeare, whose birthday is celebrated today, had more influence on the English language than anyone else before or since. He’s the man responsible for words like “jaded” and phrases like “pound of flesh”.
While many words from his plays retain the same meaning, others have moved on. For instance, Shakespeare used the word “punk” to mean “prostitute”.
This is just one example of how language is a living thing. Words like “selfie” come into our vocabulary, but others become obsolete or end up meaning something completely different.
I vividly remember a lengthy discussion with my late father, also a journalist, about this. I’d used the word “decimate” to mean “destroy” (I think we were talking about what the opposition had just done to Watford’s defence).
He insisted that decimate meant “to kill one in ten” – something Roman leaders would do to punish mutinous legions. That was the original meaning, I agreed, but a word means what most people think it means now, and not what it used to mean.
After all, if you asked 100 people in the street what decimated meant (as long as none of them were my dad or a military historian) I’d bet that they’d all say “destroyed” too.
One interesting question arising out of this is – when does a word actually change meaning? At what point can you no longer be accused of using it incorrectly?
The word “hopefully” is really an adverb – it originally meant “in a hopeful way”. So if you travel hopefully, you are hoping that something good is waiting for you at your destination.
But today most people use it to mean “I hope” or “it is hoped” eg “Hopefully I will do well in my exams”. This use is so well accepted now that you would be churlish to correct someone. People might say it is grammatically incorrect but I would say it isn’t as its meaning has changed.
Hopefully you agree, but let me know if you would like to decimate my argument.
