Justin Cord Hayes - The unexpected evolution of language: Discover the surprising etymology of everyday words

English is the mutt, the Heinz 57, the bastard child of every language that came before it. Thats why its so inscrutable to those who encounter it after learning their well-behaved, logical languages. Our words trace gnarly roots that sometimes dead end, and were certainly not averse to coining words that have no roots or reason at all. (Hornswoggle, anyone?)

Its those gnarly roots that youll find in this book. Some of the English words you think youre familiar with actually used to mean something quite different. How on earth does a definition just change, you ask? Well, it depends. The definitions of the words in this book were twisted due to historical events, cultural adjustments, or technological advancements. The fascinating stories behind these transformations are surprising (see entry for stadium), thoughtful (see entry for acquit), and sometimes pretty funny (see entry for occupy). One thing to keep in mind is that English is really three Englishes: old, middle, and modern. Ask most people which one was Shakespeares purview, and theyll say, Oh, he wrote in Middle English. Nope, sorry. He wrote in Modern English. Dont let all those forsooths, cozes, and fiddlesticks throw you off.

Before we get started, its helpful to know a little bit about the origins of the English language. Old English lasted from roughly A.D. 700 to about A.D. 1100. The grammar of Old English was closely related to Latin. Old English, also called Anglo-Saxon, was spoken by the Anglo-Saxons. These were Germanic tribes who invaded and then settled in portions of what is today Great Britain.

Old English is indecipherable to us today; its basically a foreign language. Nonetheless, we do have surviving Old English texts such as Caedmons Hymn. This nine-line poem written in honor of God is the acorn (see entry for acorn) from which has grown the mighty oak of literature in English. Written around A.D. 700, its the oldest piece of English literature known to exist. Old English also is the language of the epic Beowulf .

For all intents and purposes, Old English ended with the famous Norman Conquest. The Normans were French and defeated the English, the erstwhile Anglo-Saxons, at the Battle of Hastings on October 14, 1066. Middle English survived until the 1400s. Its the language of Geoffrey Chaucer, author of the immortal TheCanterbury Tales. Though its written in Middle English, most people today can read and understand those stories, as long as the text contains plenty of footnotes.

Middle English shifted to Modern English when many in England adopted the Chancery Standard, a form of English spoken in London. The standard was adapted, in part, because of the printing press, introduced to England around 1470. Thus, Modern English took over by the 1500s and holds sway today. Its the language of everything from Shakespeare to Dickens to Hawthorne to Dickinson to Faulkner to all those annoying bloggers who cant spell.

Modern English rose at the time of great world exploration and is now the polyglot stew we know and usually love (but sometimes abhor). Perhaps due to its mutt-like origins, we English speakers continue to coin words and phrases with a frequency that would have shocked Chaucer and probably even Shakespeare.

With centuries of history under its belt, maybe its not so surprising that English words have changed meanings over the years. Sometimes, we easily can trace why a word once meant this but now means that; yet, at other times, the only things to rely on are common sense and speculation based on historical trends.

What follows are about 200 words that used to mean one thing and now mean something else. Some of them have changed in logical, sensible ways, while others have undergone the linguistic equivalent of complete reconstructive surgeryshifting, for example, from a verb to a noun or vice versabringing them to the point where even these words mothers wouldnt recognize them. But what do you expect from a language thats the semantic cross between a Dutch elm, an oak, and a Japanese maple?