Thank you, Byron.

I will concede that that is exactly what I wrote and that the implication you point up is reasonable.

However, an implication is not an assertion.

You can read what I wrote with that implication that the meaning of a word never changes. In my view it is the usage, not the meaning that changes. Which, means that new usage adds additional or nuanced meaning to the original word.

You can also read what I wrote as asserting that when a speaker or writer first spoke or wrote a word it had an intended meaning that is unchangeable ... regardless of whether it was correctly perceived by the listener or reader. Even were the speaker or writer to later change their opinion of or use of a word and engage in different usage, that would not change the meaning of the prior use.

Obviously no one, myself included, enjoys being simply told 'you're wrong.' Had someone asked, 'are you saying meaning and usage of a word never change,' this probably would have gone in a different direction.

The history of usage of a word from its initial meaning is interesting and necessary to what to me is more important, what the speaker meant at the time he used it.

And, so, I'll never be singing 'My legacy's clock was too large for the shelf ...'




Last edited by DFT; 01/05/23 10:30 AM.
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