A few hundred years ago, you could walk on solid clouds, eat dinner in the morning, and lovingly call your significant other your “bully.” This might sound like Opposite Day, but in reality, it’s a quirk of the English language. Thanks to the coalescence of English from many other languages, some words have completely changed definitions since their first usage. Find out why being a “villain” or a “cheater” wasn’t such a bad thing in the not-so-distant past.
Cloud
Now: A visible mass of condensed water vapor floating in the atmosphere, typically high above the ground.
Then: A rock or a hill.
A few hundred years ago, the definition of “cloud” was more grounded. “Cloud” first appeared in Old English as clud (meaning “mass of rock or hill”), from the noun clod, meaning “lump of earth or clay.” Its definition went sky-high in the 14th century for a very simple reason: Rocky mounds and hills resemble cumulus clouds. Before this, the word for “cloud” was weolcan, from the Proto-Indo-European root welg (aptly meaning “wet”), and in Middle English, the word “skie” could also mean “cloud.” The usage of “cloud” to refer to a rocky mass fizzled out by the 16th century. Even more recently, “cloud” gained a modern usage related to internet-based technology, as in “cloud storage” for saving files.
Dinner
Now: The last meal of the day.
Then: The first meal of the day.
A 21st-century time traveler might find it confusing to go back to the 14th century and sit down for dinner in the morning. At the time, dinner was the first and main meal of the day, traditionally served between 9 a.m. and noon. It came from the Old French disner, which meant “breakfast.” Over the centuries, this main meal was pushed back later in the day. From the Middle Ages to the mid-18th century, “dinner” was served around noon and “supper” was eaten in the evening. By the height of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, the largest meal of the day was pushed back even further because workers couldn’t leave factories to go home for a midday meal, resulting in dinner’s current evening time slot. Now, the difference between “dinner” and “supper” is mostly regional — in the American South, “supper” still tends to be the evening meal.
Villain
Now: A criminal or scoundrel.
Then: A village peasant.
What do the Joker, Darth Vader, and Voldemort all have in common with medieval peasants? Not much, but these modern villains from books and film are connected to everyday villagers who lived centuries ago thanks to the Latin word villa, meaning “country house or farm.” In the Middle Ages, the landed aristocracy began using “vilain” or “vilein” to refer to what we would call a “villager” today. It had negative connotations, some of which included “unpolished,” “uncouth,” and “uncultured.” A sense of “bad manners means bad morals” took hold soon after, causing the word “villain” to turn into a name for a criminal or fraudster. Today, “villain” is most often used to describe an evil character in a plot — a sense that has been in use since the early 19th century.
Cheat
Now: To violate rules.
Then: Land owned by a king or lord.
The first record of “cheat” dates to the mid-14th century, with the word defined as “property which falls to the lord of the fee by way of forfeit, fine, or lapse” — essentially meaning property seized by a king or lord. It was a shortening of the word “escheat” (of the same meaning), an adaptation of the Old French word eschete, meaning “succession” or “inheritance.” In this way, a “cheater” was a royal officer in charge of the king’s “escheats” — not someone who broke the rules during a board game. By the 16th century, the word developed negative connotations from tenants who lost their land because of these “escheat” laws; you could say that they felt cheated out of their land. The original usages became obsolete, and the modern definition of “cheating” to mean “deceit or trickery” took over.
Naughty
Now: Disobedient.
Then: Poor or needy.
In the 14th century, someone who had naught had nothing. The term came directly from the Old English word for “nothing,” nawiht. It eventually turned into a derogatory sense of “good for nothing,” which fed into the mid-16th century idea that someone or something that was naughty was also morally bad or wicked. The sense of “naughty” being downright evil was subdued as its modern transformation continued. Now, it's used to describe general disobedience or mischief (more likely regarding a child than a tyrant).
Fathom
Now: To make sense of.
Then: To hug or embrace.
How this word transformed from “hug” to “comprehend” is, well, hard to fathom. It first emerged centuries ago in Old English as fæthm, meaning “outstretched arms.” To “fathom” someone was to clasp them in your arms. By the 17th century, “fathom” was a maritime verb that meant “to measure by a sounding line” (a weighted line used to measure the depth of the water under a boat). This relates to a noun form of “fathom” — a unit of length equal to 6 feet. Back then, this was measured from fingertip to fingertip with outstretched arms, equaling about 6 feet on a sailor. From there, it took on a figurative sense of “to get to the bottom of,” resulting in the modern usage as a noun or verb related to comprehension.
Bully
Now: A cruel person.
Then: A sweetheart.
How did “bully” become the antithesis of its origin? It was a gradual transformation, starting with the 16th-century Dutch word for “lover,” boel, which was a diminutive of the Middle Dutch word broeder (“brother”). “Bully” soon described anyone who seemed like a “good or fine fellow,” possibly harkening back to its earlier “brother” sense. By the mid-17th century, it meant something closer to “ruffian” or “blusterer,” and its positive connotations were diminished. This might have been influenced by the English noun “bull” (an animal known for its aggression). “Bully” did retain one positive usage until the late 19th century as an adjective meaning “worthy, jolly, or admirable.” Alas, all modern definitions of the word are now negative.
Silly
Now: Foolish.
Then: Blessed.
Being called “silly” today has meanings ranging from “lighthearted” and “amusing” to more derogatory definitions, such as “absurd” or “foolish.” Centuries ago, though, “silly” had a nearly opposite meaning: “blessed.” It emerged as “seli” in the 13th century (derived from the Old English gesælig) and meant “blessed or pious” and “innocent.” By the end of the century, it had slightly changed meanings to “harmless” and eventually, “pitiable.” The tone of “silly” continued to change in the 14th century, moving from “pitiable” to “weak.” It was this series of small changes that led to the eventual demise of “silly” as a righteous word. By the 16th century, it underwent a natural transition from “weak” into “feeble in mind,” “lacking in reason,” or “foolish” — much as we use it today.
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