Out With the Old, In With the New

There are very few things in this world that you can count on to stay the same: The sun rising and setting, a mother’s love, and the fact that whatever your new “favorite” is on a menu, it will be gone in a month because it’s only seasonal. Language — is not one of those things.

For as long as people could speak, they’ve been redefining meanings and altering their language to suit whichever rules or “standards” applied at that time. There are many words that we use quite regularly but associate with a different meaning than their initial definitions and usages. Here are a few examples of some of the words we use now and their prior meanings:

Along with words having adopted new definitions over time, there are many words that have either lost their meanings or else been created in order to adapt to our ever-changing society.

As technology continues to expand there is a need for new words such as: ringtone, iPad, cellular phone, and wireless. Other absurd words such as: supersize and unibrow are now being recognized in the dictionary. Personally, I think our society should not be supporting either of these words. We could all do without the supersizing of our Big Mac meals and the existence of unibrows; Ernie's the only one supporting that one.

While society and language evolve, there are also words that become unnecessary and eventually disappear from our vocabulary. Words such as: icebox, 8 track, gams, moxie, and barkeep are all examples or words we rarely, if ever, hear anymore.

As much as we might want to keep our favourite outdated words in circulation, we’ll benefit from embracing the changes and new opportunities our language presents — as long as we’re careful not to take advantage of words like “supersize.”