Hijacked words - can you think of any?

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Normal words that have been hijacked to describe something else:

gay:
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French gai
Date: 14th century
1 a : happily excited : MERRY b : keenly alive and exuberant : having or inducing high spirits
2 a : BRIGHT, LIVELY <gay sunny meadows> b : brilliant in color
3 : given to social pleasures; also : LICENTIOUS

gay is better than ? homosexual
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Bright
1 a : radiating or reflecting light : SHINING, SPARKLING <bright lights> <bright eyes> b : SUNNY <a bright day>; also : radiant with happiness <bright smiling faces> <bright moments>
2 : ILLUSTRIOUS, GLORIOUS <brightest star of the opera>
3 : BEAUTIFUL
4 : of high saturation or brilliance <bright colors>
5 a : LIVELY, CHEERFUL <be bright and jovial among your guests -- Shakespeare> b : INTELLIGENT, CLEVER <a bright idea> <bright children>

bright is better than being an atheist ?

boy language is getting crazy - according to m-w then maybe a bright is also gay?

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The computereze has been responsible for more hijacking than any other cultural item.

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Husker, I've never heard the expression--a bright. What is it?

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"Normal" words get "hi-jacked" all the time.

Silly used to mean innocent, for example - and fond meant foolish - naughty was a serious word, for serious badness...

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DUMB . . .
Dumb - mute, lacking the power of speech.

Also, it is my understanding that the word "liberal" at one time would have more nearly described the conservative views ascribed to the Republican party than those of the Democratic party. That is, an advocate of individual rights.[/color]

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Walter will know this -- I think there's a German word, dumm, that means stupid, rather than unable to speak. We've simply used the spelling d-u-m-b to refer to both meanings... several English words have had this happen to them. Cleave, for example, means both to stick together and to rend apart. The meanings come from different roots.

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Wy - I'm confused how so? Embarrassed

Wy wrote:

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dumm vs tumb
There is a German word "dumm" meaning "dull or stupid." Our English word "dumb" comes from the Old High German word "tumb" meaning "mute."

There are many words that have different meanings: slice and slice, dice and dice, rice and rice (the grain and to rice potatoes by putting them through a "ricer." Look and look, fan and fan, etc., etc., etc. I haven't checked the dictionary, but possibly (or is it probably?) each meaning of each of these "groups" comes from a common root.[/color]

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Husker, your post was that gay has a certain etymology, but now is used to mean something different. You ask:

Quote:

gay is better than ? homosexual

Then you give the definition of bright, and say:

Quote:

bright is better than being an atheist ?

Do you understand my confusion?

Charli, you say:

Quote:

There are many words that have different meanings: slice and slice, dice and dice, rice and rice (the grain and to rice potatoes by putting them through a "ricer." Look and look, fan and fan, etc., etc., etc. I haven't checked the dictionary, but possibly (or is it probably?) each meaning of each of these "groups" comes from a common root.

I don't get all of your pairs, but it's plain that some of them come from the same root. I'm not sure that any of these count as "hijacked" words in the sense that Husker meant originally...

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Quote:

Who is a Bright?
Anyone who fits the definition and says, "I am a Bright" is a Bright.

The Brights' umbrella is large, very large. For example, Brights can be agnostics, rationalists, skeptics, atheists, objectivists, igtheists, and so on. There are any of a number of self-identity labels they might apply to themselves. No label at all need apply...just plain "nonreligious" or "uninterested in religion" without any real consideration beyond that might be how a person is seeing himself/herself.

What counts is that the person's worldview is naturalistic. If it is, then that person falls within the purview of the Brights.

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An interesting one is 'fag' or 'faggot'.

I believe the original meaning of 'faggot' was a bundle of inferior firewood. This now has a modern meaning of 'gay' (implying that homosexuality is 'inferior' to hetrosexuality?).

There is also a British usage meaning 'cigarette', which came from a cigarette, although it would burn, was inferior to a cigar in the same way that a 'faggot' was inferior to proper firewood.

A third use in Britain is from cooking in the Midlands region, where a 'faggot' is a kind of meatball (made in part from offal I believe), which again suggests the implied inferiority of the faggot to a whole-meat product such as a chop or steak.

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Thanks, Husker. I hadn't heard the term before.

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Yes, thanks, Husker, for the explanation. I never heard it before either. I've always been bright. Didn't know I was a bright as well. Live and loin.

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to ejaculate:
"If you ejaculate, you suddenly say or shout something, for example because you are very suprised."
(Collins Cobuild English Dictionary for Advanced Learners)

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@husker,

Apology. apology +‎ -ize, from Ancient Greek απολογία (apología, “a speech in defense”), from απολογέομαι (apologéomai, “to speak in one’s defense”), from απόλογος (apólogos, “an account, story”), compound of απο- (apo-, “from, off”) and λόγος (lógos, “speech”).

Today if i were to make an apology, one would assume i am admitting guilt.

Terrific. From Latin terrificus (“causing terror”), from terrere (“to frighten, terrify”) + -ficus, from facere (“to make”).

Today if I were to tell you that I am terrific, one might assume that I am proclaiming that i am feeling good. could i actually be telling you that I am causing terror? could I be a terrific terrorist?

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Hijacked words - can you think of any?

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