3.(Linguistics)linguisticsAlso called:elevation(of the meaning of a word) a change from pejorative to neutral or positively pleasant. The wordnicehas achieved its modern meaning by amelioration from the earlier sensefoolish, silly Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 201...
Semanticsis the branch of linguistics concerned with meaning in language. Students of semantics trace the ways that words and phrases change meanings over time. Semantic change—also called semantic drift, semantic shift, semantic development and semantic progression— takes different forms. One type of...
"The meaning ofnicewhen it first appeared inMiddle English(about 1300) was '(of persons or their actions) foolish, silly, simple; ignorant, senseless, absurd.' " . . . A shift away from disparagement began in the 1500s, with such meanings as 'requiring or involving great precision or ac...
"Slang is the worst of language weeds. Strive every day to uproot it and find choice, yet just as effective expressions with which to supplant the slang that leaps to your lips." This was the advice of one Howard Roscoe Driggs, once a professor of English at the University of Utah and ...