They have stolen so many great words and assigned them to the garbage dump and totally corrupted my language. A few that come to mind are:
Gay. Used to be a great word to describe happiness.
Nigger. That was anybody regardless of color who bugged you.
Marriage. That was a union of a man and a woman. Period.
Crap. Growing up in Vegas, it was a dice game and meant you lost if you said it.
Hoe. I weeded the garden with it. The homophone is now HO, which is what Santa said.
Queer. Was anyone who was odd, didn't have to be attached to sexual preference.
Ass. Was a great work animal and could be said in polite society. "He works like an ass."
Jumping Jehosophat. It was just a great word to express surprise. Don't know where it went, but no one knows it now.
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You act as if you created the words you lament as being yours. Outside of endangering people "fire", slander or threatening you are allowed to use any of those words you choose. In fact you have done just that in your blog. No one has stolen anything from you. You associated a meaning with the words you mentioned that may or may not have been the original meaning the inventor of the word ascribed to it.
ReplyDeleteHow fortunate are we to have words with multiple meanings! Without that could Shakespear (who invented many of his own) been as effective or could we argue as much about the interpretation of scripture?