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Old 12-24-2018, 01:47 PM   #129
stuartjmz
Nameless Being
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by barryem View Post
The word "silly" in earlier times meant "blessed".

Barry
My favourite is "nice", which originally meant "blunt," ("not cutting" in Latin) hence by extension "ignorant, dull". Whenever prescriptivists rant against polysemy or insist that a word can only mean what it once did (e.g., decimate, enormity, etc) I just smile and say "that's nice"
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