Quote:
Originally Posted by meeera
Most of the definitions I looked at were twofold: firstly, the physical object, and secondly, a literary composition (and then some other more minor definitions). It's really not that complicated. Lots of words have more than one meaning. Some people here get a little too rigid about "the way I use the word is the one and only true meaning". That's not how language works.
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Nope. Language is organic. For example the word "conversation." Now days we think of it as referring to what happens when two people talk to one another, but back when King James gave order for a new updated translation of the Bible the word conversation meant the way someone conducted themselves. What they did, how they did it, etc. The word is still spelled the same but the meaning has vastly altered over the last 405 yrs (it was begun in 1611). The only way for a language to become fixed in meaning is for it to no longer be spoken. Like Latin. While it is still spoken in a limited sense it doesn't change like English has since 1611. It's used in the sciences, by Dr's and by churchmen, and that's about it. Though at one time it was the big language of culture.