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Folk etymology (in response to An Unmarried Degree? …

Comment posted on YouTube by ljublju_slova

Folk etymology (in response to An Unmarried Degree? What?):

“Crayfish”: in reality, this word comes from the same source as the French word “

ljublju_slova also commented

• As I was unable to post on YouTube; this is a response to Candidate:

  A word that changed its meaning drastically over the years is “silly”.

  Thomas Pyles in The Origins and Development of the English Language (1964) wrote that “silly” (Old English “(ge)s

• I just found this site via YouTube.

  “Awful” can be used today in a positive sense; Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (1999) gives the following phrase: “the awful majesty of alpine peaks”. “Awful” here means “solemnly impressive; inspiring awe”; in this sense, it is practically synonymous with “awesome”.

  Oh, and the advent of “awful” or “awfully” as an adverbial intensifier isn’t an “awful” (bad) thing or an “awesome” (good) thing; it’s just a reflection of the fact that a living language is constantly changing, and words often lose old meanings and acquire new ones.

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