the mutability of language

[BlaqueKatt]

with a few threads on CS and here I thought it was time to address the changing and mutability of the English language......(and it should spark a lively debate-I said lively not hurtful or insulting mmkay?-hence three different choices to debate-or hey choose your own vaguely related to the topic to debate)

When I was younger I used the term "gay" as a synonym for garish(crudely or tastelessly colorful, showy, or elaborate, as clothes or decoration.) as in "that outfit looks gay" Honestly, growing up I never knew it was once used as a hurtful word.(it used to refer to prostitutes and womanizers) And according to random house unabridged dictionary-common usage has changed the meaning-

"Usage note In addition to its original and continuing senses of “merry, lively” and “bright or showy,” gay has had various senses dealing with sexual conduct since the 17th century. A gay woman was a prostitute, a gay man a womanizer, a gay house a brothel. This sexual world included homosexuals too, and gay as an adjective meaning “homosexual” goes back at least to the early 1900s. After World War II, as social attitudes toward sexuality began to change, gay was applied openly by homosexuals to themselves, first as an adjective and later as a noun. Today, the noun often designates only a male homosexual: gays and lesbians. The word has ceased to be slang and is not used disparagingly."

What can you think of (with dictionary proof) that has been "reclaimed" by common usage? Or what words did you use without knowing the original hateful meaning("Gypped"-for getting ripped off, or negotiating by "jewing someone down")? Is this a good thing or a bad thing?


To paraphrase George Carlin the words don't hurt-they're just words-it's the racist. bigoted asshole spewing them that you gotta look out for.

[Pedersen]

Here's a few fun ones from the computing community:

Hacking / Cracking: Hacking used to be something respected. It was a recognition of getting an item to do something it wasn't normally meant to do, such as getting an early 1980's computer to display good graphics and animation. This would be described as being an awesome hack. And the process of doing it? Well, that was called hacking.

Cracking was breaking into someone else's computer or network, and was viewed negatively. Crackers were people who did this for fun. However, they would call it a hack, because it was cool to them.

Now, in the mainstream, you do not hear these words used this way. You hear about people breaking into other people's computers and networks, and how they hacked their way in.

What was considered respectable is now illegal.

Here's another one, and it comes about due to a failure in the English language: Free vs Free.

That's right, Free vs. Free. If you get into the technology world, you'll hear about Free software vs free software. And this one is weird to explain:

There's two varieties of free being discussed. The first (and easiest to understand) is free cost. "free software" costs you nothing to download.

The second variety, though, discusses what you can do with the software. In addition to downloading and using the software (which you get to do with "free software"), you are also free to give away the software, to modify the software, to give it away with your modifications. This is called "Free Software" (note the capitalization difference).

The problem is with English itself. For instance, with French, we could call it "libre" software and "gratis" software. But with English, no simple word describes the difference.

So, if there were a simple word that could do it in English, this would be a good bit of mutability in the language.

Dunno if it's useful, but it's a few points to think about.