meaning changes and can even fade away

[miriam_e]

Strange how words shift and change in English. People who use computers often talk about their computers booting, or that they boot their computer up. Ask them what they think it means and they realise they have no idea beyond the immediate meaning of starting the computer.

It actually has a really nice, almost metaphysical meaning. In the very early days of computers we had to enter code by hand as a set of switches in binary numbers, each representing a very simple instruction to the microprocessor. It was slow and tedious, stepping through memory positions, entering in these numbers by hand. Then when the code was run it would start reading a program from a punched tape reader or some other device. This was considered to be rather an awesome feat, somewhat like lifting yourself by your own bootstraps. Later it became referred to as bootstrapping the machine, and still later it was simplified to just 'boot'. I love the idea of starting the machine being like someone lifting themself up by their own bootlaces. :)

There are lots of words that change in strange ways in English. The word 'let' is an especially odd one. It originally had the opposite meaning. These days it means to enable. It originally meant to obstruct or hinder. You can find it still being used in its ancient meaning in law, because legalese is so... modern.

This is one of the things I love about English. It is crazy and illogical, but it is a truly democratic language -- the most flexible in the world. It is constantly changing. English is defined, not by stuffy professors of language, but by the ordinary people who use it... us.

Comments

[annie-lyne.livejournal.com]

It's great, though I wouldn't say the phenomenon is confined to English.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

French is decided upon by a special committee. If they don't like it then it is not French. Latin is a dead language and hasn't changed for hundreds of years. Korean was designed to be logical and consistent, so I'm not sure how malleable it is. I don't really know about any others. My niece is learning Russian and she says it is incredibly rich and full of exceptions, and difficult to learn. It may be that it has evolved in a similar way to English. From what I've heard of Spanish it is a fairly small and regular language, with few new entrants to the vocabulary. (I want to learn Spanish one day.)

One of the really outstanding things about English is that it has no problem with "stealing" from other languages, or making up new words, or creating entirely new ways to speak. It is a weird language, and must be hell to learn, but it is a wonderful language for writers and poets and musicians.

It's kinda okay, y'know? ...here we are, on the web, buoyed up on a sea of bits, afloat on a tide of memes, in an infinitely mutable mindscape. What a blast! Sayonara, adieu, adiós, auf wiedersehen, arrivederci.

...see what I mean? :)

• Kinda isn't really recognised as a word yet, but has been in common use for many years, having variable meanings, such as "mostly", or "similar", or "not quite" depending on context.
  
• Okay is a new word constructed from the letters of two other words.
  
• Y'know doesn't appear to mean anything but has a genuine use in ordinary speech as a kind of spoken question-mark.
  
• Web has enlarged from something that spiders do to this worldwide network of computers.
  
• Meme is a word invented in 1976 by Richard Dawkins.
  
• Mindscape appears to have been constructed from "mind" and the second half of "landscape".
  
• Blast, being a good thing, was probably introduced by the drug culture.
  Many foreign words are happily adopted into English -- everyone knows those words for "goodbye".

I love this crazy, chaotic, goofy language.

[annie-lyne.livejournal.com]

You're right about French, but I'd imagine that "street" French would be vibrant and evolving as well, possibly not to a greater extent.

Welsh likes to steal words from English too.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Hey, that's a really interesting point about "street" French. I hadn't thought of that.

Heheh crafty Welsh. :)