Wordsmith Talk |
About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us | |||
Register Log In Wordsmith.org Forums General Topics Weekly Themes This week's topic (subsitutes for "good")
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
I do believe that original meanings can be almost completely lost to all but the likes of "us". One example is decimate. This word means, to nearly everyone speaking English, devastate or destroy. It's original meaning is the loss of every tenth, resulting in a 10% loss overall, a far cry from destruction. I agree that the concept can still be expressed, but probably not by using the original word, in many situations. Awesome has not tumbled nearly as far as decimate, however, mostly because the root word, awe is still widely recognized and used ("in awe") and retains the same general idea of its original meaning.
Moderated by Jackie
Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics Forums16Topics13,913Posts229,363Members9,182 Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members Ineffable, ddrinnan, TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV
9,182 Registered Users
Who's Online Now 1 members (wofahulicodoc), 388 guests, and 1 robot. Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days) A C Bowden 21
Top Posters wwh 13,858Faldage 13,803Jackie 11,613wofahulicodoc 10,558tsuwm 10,542LukeJavan8 9,919Buffalo Shrdlu 7,210AnnaStrophic 6,511Wordwind 6,296of troy 5,400
Forum Rules · Mark All Read Contact Us · Forum Help · Wordsmith.org