I am going to call words whose meanings change ‘word blur.’
The English Language is the product of cultural evolution. Words change for many reasons, including misunderstandings.
Consider the world gentleman. A gentleman was a member of the landed gentry. But now it means a man who is nice to other, approrioate and thoughtful. Someone once told me that it fprobably caused a lot of pai and confusing.
To research: did it cause confusion? I could see people assuming landed gentry were good people. In the same way that people use Christian to mean good person, not someone with a specific religious faith. There was likely no real confusion.
- Islamophobia
- Regressive left
- Gentleman
- Fake News
Insert joke about owning horses:
(1) He thinks that I am a gentleman and that you are a lady! (2) Well, consider the source. I don’t even know what a lady is. (1) Exactly! I thought a gentleman was somebody who owned horses. Turns out, the short and very simple definition of a gentleman or a lady is: someone who always attempts to make the people around him or her feel as comfortable as possible. That’s it! If you don’t do that, nothing else matters. The cars, the clothes, the houses…