Words, Words, Words
To the Most Awful and Terrible King, and His Most Pompous and Conceited Queen
"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means..."—I. Montoya
Copyright 2005, 2016 by Jeff A. Suzuki
Permission is hereby granted to photocopy for educational and non-profit use, provided copyright information remains intact
There is a story that upon the dedication of St. Paul's Cathedral, Queen Anne described it as “awful, pompous, and artificial” which, in those days, meant “awe-inspiring, full of pomp, and artistically done.” The story does not appear until long after Queen Anne's death, so it is almost certainly apocryphal. It was most likely invented to illustrate a point: living languages change over time.
The English language doesn't really become recognizable until Chaucer's time. Chaucer's Middle English is intelligible to anyone with a decent vocabulary (who can also read words "as they are written"...thus "cough" and "though" would be read as "kowg" and "thowg"), and Shakespeare can be read by almost anyone. (The key to understanding Shakespeare and Chaucer is to disregard your literacy teacher's insistence that you not read aloud...it also helps if you can speak like a Scotsman) Thus, I'll be focusing on the changes in meaning over this time period.
For anyone interested in writing period poetry, prose, or lyrics, here are some words which have undergone some drastic changes in meaning between the end of period and the modern day. All the word derivations and histories are taken from the online edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), though I've taken the liberty of modernizing the spelling in the quotations.
Apology: An explanation and/or defense of an action; the modern sense of expiation did not emerge until 1596, where Shakespeare used it in this sense in Richard III. Hence the “apologies” offered by various Church figures: they do not convey regret but explanations of actions.
Artificial: The pejorative sense of “affected” dates to the mid-17th century; the original meaning is simply “constructed” (which we still use: artificial lights, for example).
Awful: Something that inspires awe or fear; kings that weren't awful tended not to be king for long. Shakespeare writes of “The awful princely scepter” in Henry VI, Part 2 (1593). The word is not used to mean “extremely bad” until 1809.
Boor: A lot of our terms of abuse come from words that mean “farmer” or “country dweller” and originally had no pejorative sense: for example, “village” and “villain” have the same root, a “pagan” is a country-dweller, and one possible source of the word “heathen” is “person who lives in the heaths.” A boor was any peasant or country dweller (compare to the German bauer––farmer). The word is first used in the pejorative sense of “rude” in 1598.
Brazen: The word derives from brass, and usually refers to some quality of brass, either its color or its strength. Usually used with the implication of toughness: brazen progenitors are tough forebearers. The negative connotations begin to emerge post-period, in reference to the mythological ages (Gold, Silver, Brass).
Brash: Since brazen is derived from brass, it seems that brash should be as well...but it isn't. The OED suggests it was an onomatopoeic combination influenced by "break" and "rash", and its first use, in the sense of very fragile, appears in 1566. The word isn't use in the sense of hasty, rash, or impetuous until 1824.
Car: A wheeled vehicle. I mention this because in the SCA, there's a tendency to avoid using the word "car." "Cart" and "wagon" (and "wain", if you want a truly period sounding word) are fine substitutes, if you don't like the word car, but the word "dragon" as a substitute is, to my mind, going out of your way to make the SCA experience more modern. (As I've noted elsewhere...if you see non-period stuff happening within the SCA, you can complain about it loudly...or do your best to popularize a period substitute)
Careful: In many cases, you can discern the earlier meaning of a word by reading what's there, and not what you think is there. In this case; careful = care full, which is to say full of cares. A careful person is someone who has many concerns; we might use the term worrisome. A secondary meaning is conveyed by the modern word painstaking: a careful person is one who does things very precisely. The equivalence of careful and cautious doesn't emerge until about 1580.
Calculator: A person who calculated things; it was also the byname of Richard Swineshead, a medieval mathematician (in the modern sense of the word). As late as World War II, "calculator" and "computer" were job titles.
Conceit: If you conceive something, it is your conceit. This could be applied to thoughts, opinions, creations; being conceited simply meant having a lot of thoughts, opinions, creations. The first time the word is used negatively is 1605.
Corn: Originally a generic term for any small particle. Thus we might speak of "corns of [black] powder." Seed grains in general are referred to as corn: those who remember their British history know about the Corn Laws that prohibited importing wheat unless the prices hit a certain threshold. When Europeans discovered maize, they used the term "corn" for the grains; subsequently the tail wagged the dog, and nowadays "corn" almost always refers to maize.
Crafty: A meaning common during the High Middle Ages was “mighty,” though by the Late Middle Ages and early Renaissance the word came to mean “skillful.” There are some period uses of the word in a pejorative sense; from Tindale's translation of the Bible (1526-1534) we have 2 Corinthians XII:16 as “I was crafty, and took you with guile...” though even here the word refers to skill.
Demand: To demand is to ask for something. However, in the period sense, the word either means only to ask ("I demand a boon"), or that the asker has a right to that which is requested (this is the sense of "demand" in modern law, and in Hamlet, Shakespeare talks of "demand of our neglected tribute", i.e., get what we're owed). The negative sense of asking for what you have no right to doesn't emerge until 1643, when the Earl of Newcastle wrote "So a thief may term a true-man a malignant, because he doth refuse to deliver his Purse upon demand."
Despot: The Greeks used this in the sense of an absolute ruler, though there is no pejorative meaning: it is just a title (modern Greek still uses the word despotes to refer to bishops). It is not until the French Revolution that the modern sense of “oppressor” becomes the dominant one.
Dunce: A follower of Duns Scotus (d. 1308), “the subtle doctor.” Generally derisive, but used to indicate overeducation (”egghead” is probably the closest modern equivalent) rather than stupidity: T. Wilson's Rhetorics (1567), “Use the quiddities of Dunce...and you shall see the ignorant either fall asleep or else bid you farewell.” It was not until 1577 that the term was first applied to a person who was so stupid they could not be educated.
Elf: Roughly synonymous with fairy; however, while fairies were generally person-sized, elves were smaller: in fact, the word elf was frequently used to describe someone short (hence Santa's Elves and, of course, there's Elf). But for most of period, and well afterward, elves were vicious, nasty creatures that you'd do best to avoid or to appease: Goethe's Der Erlkönig, and Pratchett's Lords and Ladies are good descriptions of what medieval folk thought about elves. Tolkien's view is downright revisionist.
Extraordinary: Literally something that was not ordinary. Generally disparaging: in the university system, the extraordinary professors were the ones who taught the early morning classes and could be dismissed at any time (today their role is taken over by the adjunct professors), and it was the "ordinary professors" who had all the good time slots and all the other privileges of rank. Shakespeare (no surprise) is one of the first to use the word extraordinary in the sense of better-than-ordinary.
Fairy: The primary connotation of fairy in period was "magic user." However, period fairies were generally people-sized (Morgan le Fay of the Arthurian legends for example, and Shakespeare calls Cleopatra a fairy). The idea that fairies could curl up in a flower seems to originate in Shakespeare's time.
Harlot: Rather surprisingly this word was originally used for male vagabonds, beggars, and the like. Later it was applied to male itinerant performers (14th century) and eventually female performers (15th century). It is not until the 16th century that it came into common use to mean a female prostitute.
Happy: Etymologically related to "hap", luck (as in happenstance), and generally has the meaning of luck: thus we speak of happy chance or its literal equivalent, haphazard. The primary meaning shifts to the modern sense of pleasurable emotion in the 16th century, but as late as 1600, Shakespeare wrote "Happy are they that hear their detractions, and can put them to mending."
Hazard: Originally refers to a game of dice (or chance games in general). It doesn't appear in its modern sense of risk or danger until the 16th century, and in its earliest usage still refers to the risk of loss because of the game.
Heart: "The hollow muscular organ which performs the function of a pump in the circulatory system..." Most often use to indicate the most important feature: we do this today, when we speak of "the heart of the matter." Nowadays, we typically associate the (metaphorical) heart with the emotion of love, though the first clear use of "heart" in the sense of "love" ("I gave you my heart") seems to be around 1400. More generally, the word was used in connection with any emotion: If you said "heart and mind," you were gilding the lily. (<pedant>Actually, Shakespeare said "To gild refined gold, or to paint the lily." The phrase "gilding the lily" makes no sense.</pedant>)
Hussy: A contraction of housewife. The records of Edinburgh (1530), “No servant [shall] take other clothes than their masters and hussies and their households clothes to wash...” Not used derisively until 1676.
Idiot: The root of this word is the Greek idiotes, a “private person” (vs. a public person—someone active in politics). There are various meanings, used simultaneously throughout period, but the most common meaning was “uneducated,” and in particular, “lacking a theological education” (i.e., a layman). Kapgrave's Life of St. Katherine (1440) refers to the apostles as idiots, and Wycliff (1380) wrote “We dwelled together in churches and were idiots...” Incidentally, most terms denoting subnormal mentality (moron, imbecile, etc.) are post-period.
Knave: As German speakers might guess, this is simply a boy child. The term is sometimes used as a term of abuse, though in the sense of “acting childishly” until (at least) 1481, where it appears in a guild regulation: “If any Brother...despises another, calling him knave, or whoreson...”
Luxury: Originally meaning lasciviousness or lusts. A rough modern equivalent might be "addiction" or perhaps "habit." Bentham (1780) begins to use it in the modern positive sense: "necessities come before luxuries."
Masterpiece: In the medieval guild structure, a master was someone who was permitted to have his own shop. To qualify, you had to produce a master piece: roughly speaking, it proved you had the skills necessary to make a living through your craft. But note the timeline: the masterpiece showed you were ready to sell your work. If you told someone their masterpiece was the best thing they ever made, you're essentially calling them a one-hit wonder. Ben Johnson (1607) is the first to use the word in the sense of "best work ever."
Mathematician: Until the 16th century, mathematician was commonly used to refer to someone skilled in astrology and numerology: in short, ways of using mathematics to predict the future. But many who claimed to know astrology and numerology were frauds, so mathematician became synonymous with charlatan; Diocletian's edict banning mathematicians and Augustine's rant against mathematics were directed towards these practices.
Naughty: If you have nothing (naught), you are naughty. Langland's Piers Plowman (1378) uses the word in this sense in several passages. The implication of immorality does not appear until 1460 (presumably the poor are more prone to immoral behavior), but this meaning does not become common until the 17th century.
Pathetic: Something that produces sadness, compassion, or sympathy (pathos). The modern sense of “miserably inadequate” appears in 1900.
Perfect: This is occasionally used in the modern sense of lacking flaws. However, the most common sense in period is "not missing anything" or "complete." If you've ever wondered why the Constitution talks about a more perfect union, it's because as late as the 18th century, the sense of "complete" was more common than the sense of "unflawed."
Pompous: This word undergoes a few changes, but its literal sense is “full of pomp.” When it first appears (in Chaucer's Monk's Tale), it is used in the modern sense of exaggerated self-importance. But by the 15th century, it is applied to stately shows and displays (compare “Pomp and Circumstances”) and generally has positive implications; we might use the word “spectacular.” It retains this connotation until the 19th century, when the older meaning becomes predominant.
Reeking: There are various meanings, but the general sense of the word used in period is to emit something, usually smoke or steam: Spenser in Faerie Queen writes “His brows with sweat did reek and steam.” Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (Act III, Scene 1): “Now whil'st your purpled hands do reek and smoke...” The implication of something that smells bad does not appear until 1710.
Romance: The medieval language of France was known as Romance (cf. the fourth official language of Switzerland); a romance was anything written in this language. This often meant the tales of chivalry; by extension, a romance was what we would call an adventure story (this sense is retained into the 20th century, when Hugo Gernsback began publishing stories of “scientific romance”---science fiction). Milton (1667) seems to be the first to use the word in connection with love stories.
Thoughtful: As the word suggests, full of thoughts. We might say intelligent, clever, though it is sometimes used in the sense of brooding: you're thinking, but it makes you unhappy. What the word doesn't mean in period is considerate: this usage doesn't appear until 1791.
Terrible: Inspiring of terror. Hence “terrible swift sword” (from Battle Hymn of the Republic) means that the sword is frightening, not cheap and rusty. Generally a compliment, since the assumption was that those terrified ought to be terrified: Ivan the Terrible was named because he inspired terror in his enemies. The modern usage of something superlatively bad did not appear until 1925, when FitzGerald used it in Great Gatsby. The word “terrific” does not appear until 1598, when it means the same thing as terrible; the modern sense of “exceedingly good” does not emerge until 1930. It is interesting that the two words have identical etymologies and entirely opposite meanings.
Trivial: The trivium were the “three roads” to knowledge: the fundamental liberal arts (grammar, rhetoric, and logic). Shakespeare is the first to use it in the modern sense of inconsequential in Henry VI, Part 2 (1593).
Troll: To move about, from one place to another. Langland: "Thus he hath trolled about his two and thirty winters." The word, referring to a mythological creature, doesn't appear until 1616 (so the use of "Troll" as a term for the registration desk of an SCA event is another example of going out of your way to introduce non-period elements into the SCA...see my note about "car").
Tyrant: In Greek political theory, a tyrant was someone who seized power without a legal claim; this usage continues through the medieval period. Hence when MacDuff calls MacBeth a tyrant, he is referring to MacBeth's seizure of power, and not to his oppressive rule. Note that the SCA practice of “king by right of arms” has no basis whatsoever in medieval legal theory. Kings may have enforced a claim by winning a battle, but the legal basis for the claim was generally lineage, marriage, inheritance, or election; thus, almost all SCA kings are tyrants. For example, William the Conqueror's claim to the throne of England based on inheritance (he claimed the kingdom was willed to him by Edward the Confessor) was in conflict with Harold Godwinsson's claim based on election (the witan had chosen him); today, we might go to court, but in 1066 battle was a legitimate forum.
Virtuous: The root of this word is the Latin vir—man. The virtues were the “manlike” qualities (bravery, strength, etc.), so a virtuous woman is one who has many manlike qualities. Not necessarily complimentary! Chaucer was the first to apply the term in the modern sense to women (1386), and the association of virtue with chastity does not occur until Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing (1599).
