Nope, nothing is wrong with your eyesight: nice once meant “foolish.” And that’s not all: girl meant “young person (in general, including young men)” and vile didn’t always mean “evil”; it just meant “cheap”! If you find this interesting, read on to find out what other words have evolved dramatically over time and why.

Positive & Negative Meanings

One way words change is by becoming positive or negative. For example, pretty in Old English meant “sly” and nice in Middle English meant “foolish”! Then over time, their meanings changed to the positive one they currently have.

In general, it’s more common for words to gain negative meanings. For example, the word bully, meant “lover” or “sweetheart” in the 1500s only to become “harasser of the weak” just around 100 years later. 

A more modern example is attitude, which now primarily refers to bad attitudes. For example, if someone says “Peter has an attitude,” they probably think Peter is rude or immature.

Also, words that meant “inexpensive” took on a negative meanings over time. For example,

• vile (evil, unacceptable, disgusting) originally meant “low value” in Latin
• cheap went from meaning just “inexpensive” (“$100 for a computer? That’s cheap!”) ) to also being a synonym for “stingy” (“John is really cheap. He won’t even buy his wife a birthday present!”)

Narrower & Broader Meanings

Some words have broadened in meaning while others have narrowed. For example, the word girl in Middle English referred to any young person, regardless of their gender. But as we now know, the meaning has since narrowed to “female child.” 

A similar thing happened to the word meat. In a Bible from 1611, God says to Adam and Eve, “to you they (i.e. herbs and fruit) shall be for meat.” God is not suggesting that Adam and Eve become vegetarian. At the time, the word meat referred to food in general. 

So girl and meat are two examples of words whose meanings have narrowed. On the other hand, many words have gained broader meanings. 

For instance, the word holiday used to just refer to “holy days.” Now they are simply days off, which can still be religious, but don’t necessarily have to be.

In addition, many terms related to horses gained broader meanings and became common in everyday life — even after we stopped regularly using horses. We’re all familiar with words and expressions like:

• ponytail (tied up hair)
• horse around (rough, noisy play)
• hold your horses (to halt or pause something)

But did you know that the word manage used to mean to handle a horse? Or that bob (a style of short hair) originally meant “a horse’s tail cut short.”

Metaphorical Meanings

Words can also take on metaphorical meanings. A chapter literally refers to a chapter in a book, but can metaphorically refer to a period in your life (“the newlyweds started a new chapter in life”) or, in North America, a branch of an organization (“a local chapter of the Red Cross”).

And have you ever wondered why the word book appears in phrases like “book train tickets” or “book a hotel room”? This usage comes from the meaning “to enter into a book” (i.e. to be recorded). When you enter the train company’s record books, you’ve booked a train ticket.

A more dramatic example is the word engine, which meant “inborn talent” in Middle English. This sense of the word “engine” was, however, replaced with a metaphorical meaning: things created by people with inborn talent … specifically this:

(Interestingly, we can still find the “inborn talent” meaning in words like “ingenious” and “engineer”!)

📌 Takeaways

As we’ve seen, English words have changed a lot, and are continuing to change even today. What does this knowledge mean for our teaching?

Well, it can make us more understanding of our students. Language-learners often use old-fashioned words (e.g. “handsome”) or an outdated sense of a word (e.g. “erect” to mean “standing, upright”). 

After all, how are students supposed to know that the meanings of these words have narrowed drastically? Most English speakers also aren’t aware that the meaning of “girl” and “meat” narrowed! 

In addition to helping us better relate to our students, this knowledge can also make us better at explaining words. For example, since writing this post, I’ve noticed that the word “emotional” sounds pretty negative (“X is so emotional!”), although it originally meant “related to emotions.” 

Next time a student asks me about this word, I can explain how it got this meaning: it originally was a neutral word and that like many others in the English language, it gained negative meanings over time.

Happy tutoring!