Word that has changed in meaning
The adjective ‘awful’ used to have the complete opposite
meaning to what it does now. The word awful used to describe something which is
simply ‘full of awe’. This means that it would describe something positive,
similar to the way that we use the adjective ‘awesome’ in modern day English.
The word has changed to mean something which is ‘so terrible that it is worthy
of awe’. This therefore means that prejoation has occurred as the word has
become more negative.
Exemplified, nowadays if we used the phrase ‘that t-shirt
looks awful’, we are saying that we very much dislike the t-shirt. However, many
years ago if you were to say that the t-shirt looked awful, you’d be saying
that you really like the t-shirt; similar to if you said you thought the
t-shirt looks awesome nowadays.
The term has prejorated so much that it has become unheard
of in modern English and would lead to great confusion if used in the way it
used to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment