WORD CHANGES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 535, 22 January 1913, Page 2

WORD CHANGES.

PAST AND PRESENT. The most interesting changes that words have undergone are not in the form, but 'in . the meaning. Many common words have once had a meaning very different from the one we now give them. "Silly" once meant 'blessed. "Thou silly babe," the poet writes. "Pond" meant foolish. A "fond father" was a foolish father. Milton -writes — , Doth God exact day labour, light denied ? r ■ , I fondly ask, meaning. "I foolishly ask." A "'passenger' was one who was passing, along the highways—a foot traveller. Now it means one carried by public conveyance. A journey meant a day's travel. , * "You'd think ' twas a Journey to Twickenham town." Now a journey may mean a trip across continents or around the world. "Carriage" is another word that has greatly changed. When the "authorised version'-' of the Bible was made 300 years ago "carriage" meant what one was carrying—his bundles or baggage—not what was carrying him.. In the Book of Samuel you read how "David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage and ran into the army and saluted his brethren." But you must not think that David was travelling in a carriage, and got out of it to go and see his brethren. Also in Acts xxi., 15, we read, "And after those days we took up our carriage and went up to Jerusalem." In Thessalonians we read, in speaking of the resurrection, "We which are ialive, and remain unto the coming of the' Lord,, shall not prevent therp which are asleep," where "prevent" means "to go before," instead of to hinder or to stop, as it now means. We cannot understand Luke xi., 48. "Ye allow the deeds of your fathers,' till we know that "allow" used to mean "praise." "Presently" for us means "pretty soon," and '"by-and-by" means "sifter a while," but when Shakespeare wrote, each meant "immediately." In the play of "Hamlet." where Polonius says, "Hamlet, the queen would speak with you, and presently,," Hamlet answers, "Then I will come to my mother by-and-by." We would now say it. "The queen would speafo with you, and immediately." "Then I w'ill come to my mother at once." I suspect that there is a long history of laziness ,in the change. Sometimes words keep their original meaning, but become too light for serious writing. No one now speaks of the head' as the pate or "noddle" unless in a joking way, but these were once the proper and serious words for "head." s "'Skipped out" is now a ! slang phrase, but in one of the early English translations of the Bible we read, "Paul and Barnabas rent, theii clothes and skipped out among the people." In the same translation we read, "A flock of angels," and "My beloved cometh hopping upon ih& mountains," and "The Lord trounced Sisera and all bis host," noine of which would be thought serious enough for. Bible language today.—"Harper's Magazine."