6 cases when the “wrong” meaning of a word was fixed in dictionaries

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Do not rush to judge others for phrases like "she put on her boots" and "put a signature here."

Words can change their meanings over time, and this is absolutely normal. Of course, not everyone reads modern dictionaries, so many may not know that what they are used to scolding for is now allowed, although in most cases it is marked “spoken”. Here are six such words.

1. Nostalgia

Relatively recently, it was customary to call this only homesickness. However, the meaning of "longing for the past" is now considered acceptable.

2. Suffer

Previously, this word meant "to be sufficient, to satisfy", but today it also means "to dominate, gravitate over someone or something."

By the way, there is an expression "be in control of yourself." It should be understood as "to depend in its existence, development only on itself."

3. Painting

We are used to confusing painting and signature is bad manners. However, the dictionaries have already recorded the expansion of the meaning of the word "painting" - "the same as the signature."

In the end, the verb “sign” does not bother anyone, no one insists on “subscribing”.

4. Asexual

The main meaning of this word is "not sexually attracted." However, more and more often they say this about an unattractive person in whom there is no sexual interest. Therefore, another interpretation appeared in the dictionary of Efremova: "not causing sexual desire." True, most other dictionaries still recognize only the first meaning.

5. Shoe

The situation is similar to “put on / put on”: we put on someone, and we put on clothes. But there is no word "get on", so it is recommended to say "put on your shoes."

However, dictionaries also allow “putting on your shoes”.

6. Ecology

Many are outraged by the phrase "bad ecology", because ecology is "the science of the relationship between plant and animal organisms and the communities they form between themselves and the environment." However, dictionaries also have another meaning - "environment". And, unfortunately, it may well be bad.

In some dictionaries, you can also find the meaning "correctness, purity of something, due to the harmonious ratio of elements." So the expressions "ecology at home", "environmentally friendly relations" and the like have a right to exist.