Everyday Words that Quietly (and completely) Changed Meaning

Описание: English words love to flip meanings... and some of our most familiar words have done it more than once.
In this video, I'm counting down everyday words that quietly did a semantic 180. Words that shifted from good to bad, harmless to offensive, or literal to figurative, over centuries of use. Some of these meaning shifts appear settled. Others are happening right in front of our eyes (literally).

We're taking a look at words that got nicer (amelioration)
Words that got meaner (pejoration)
And words that are still changing right now, in ways that cause confusion, debate, and fights over what is "correct."

And we're not going to back down from what these shifts reveal about class, gender, power, and culture.

Along the way, we're unpacking the changing meanings of (and the fights about) words like: nice, awful, worry, clever, artificial, villain, bemused, fulsome, literally, hopefully, bimbo, and silly.

I'm Theresa, the Dictionary Diva. I collect old dictionaries, and use them to trace how English actually works... not how people WISH it worked.

I post new videos every week about language change, etymology, and dictionary deep dives. If you enjoy learning the world behind the words, please subscribe!