Words Wednesday: Six words which have changed their meanings

While new words offer striking examples of how the language is evolving, so too can existing words.

From time to time we like to give existing words new meanings so that they can be used in new ways. Here are half a dozen good examples together with the years their new definitions were written:

acid

1901: one of a class of substances, usually sour, which turn vegetable blues to red,
and combine with alkalies, metallic oxides, etc to form salts

1972: L.S.D. or other hallucinogenic drug

chip

1901: a small piece of wood or other substance chopped off; (slang) a sovereign

1952: a thin slice, esp. of fried potato

1977: a minute piece of silicon or other semi-conducting material, on which one or
more microcircuits can be printed

click

1901: a short, sharp clack or sound

1952: (slang) to fit into place opportunely or successfully, especially to succeed in
coming into relations or sociability with a person of the other sex

1998: (computing) to press and release one of the buttons on a mouse to select an
option on the screen

mouse

1901: a little rodent animal found in houses and in the fields

1972: a timid, shy, colourless person

1988: (computing) a device which is moved by hand over a flat surface thereby
causing the cursor to move correspondingly on screen

punk

1901: rotten wood used as tinder

1972: anyone or anything worthless

1983: a follower of punk rock, often recognisable by the use of cheap, utility articles,
e.g. razor blades, plastic rubbish bags, safety-pins, as clothes or decoration

tablet

1901: a small flat surface; something flat on which to write, paint, etc

1972: a small flat cake of any solid material, especially medicinal

2011: a small personal computer with a touch screen as an input device

Next week we look at 20 words which never were.

* All words in this blog post have been supplied by The 12^th edition of The Chambers Dictionary. ISBN 97805501002379

Tagged as: Words Wednesday