The same thing happens with words as with the social image of people, which is why it can be said that some of these words, in their development, have undergone processes of semantic change, it can also be debasement and others ennoblement.
A review of the semantic evolution of some words reveals their curious and sometimes even paradoxical transition towards senses totally contrary to the original.
FORNICAR It comes from the Latin “fornicare” which were the lower curvatures of the arches in the bridges in ancient Rome, in whose vaults the prostitutes were stationed and there they pleased their clients. For his part, HARLOT as women with a “generous vertical smile” are called, derives from “bouquet”; because, pretending to have a tavern, these women put a bouquet at their door in ancient Rome as a sign.
A case of ennoblement happened with the word PEDAGOGO, who in full Greece was a servant who took care of children and currently designates the expert in the sciences of education. Next, let’s see some words whose origins are so curious and sometimes so far from their current meaning, in which we will notice how they are ennobled and others are debased.
JOB which today is qualified as a virtue, originates from the Latin “tripalio”, which was an instrument made up of three sticks to inflict outrageous torture. So much labor was barely half compensated by the SALARY which comes from salt, since in Rome it was so scarce and, therefore, valuable, that the workers were paid with salt. The CURRENCY that the workers received derives its name from the temple located next to the workshop where they were melted, the one dedicated to Juno Moneta – or Juno the warner-.
For his part, SALARY, originally meant “solid”, was the name of the gold coin with which French legionnaires were paid. Few had to save in Europe, but they did use the BANK; in Europe there were many currencies, those who changed them sat on benches in the squares. People said – let’s go to the Pérez bank – that’s where the name for these companies came from.
Another example, the word SICARIO It comes from the time of Jesus Christ in the Palestinian domains of the Romans when the Jewish sect of the Zealots used to use a dagger with a very sharp point and curved edge. The “Sicarii” was among them, the person who hid a dagger called “sica” among his clothes to defend himself from the Romans. There are those who maintain that Jesus of Galilee himself was accompanied by volunteer hitmen.
Regarding some trades and denominations, DRIVER It was born from the French “chauffeur”, who was the one who kept the stoves (the stoker) of the steam trains alive, so it was not always the one who drove the machine and earned the smiles of the women.
He ADVISER It is derived from the Latin Aessor, ‘the one who sits next to’. That is to say, that at first the adviser was the one who sat next to a powerful person. COMRADE It was not always that cliché to greet communists, trade unionists and those who were fond of the left, because that is what soldiers who shared the same bed used to say during the French revolution.
as long as KILLER comes from the Arabic ḥaššāšīn ‘addicted to hashish’, a name applied to the henchmen of the Muslim sectarian known as the ‘Old Man of the Mountain’, 11th century, who, fanaticized by their boss and drunk on hashish, dedicated themselves to executing bloody political revenge. He RASCALparadoxically it is related to the Bible.
The word comes from briba, which in turn had the meaning of ‘wisdom’. Bribia was understood as the persuasive eloquence of the beggar to inspire pity and pity, using prayers and religious arguments, drawn from the sacred text as certain market and bus preachers do today when they ask for pious “offerings”. CRETINunderstood today as ‘stupid’, ‘fool’ did not have that derogatory charge.
It derives from the French crétin, taken in turn from a dialect of French Switzerland, where chrétien is ‘Christian’, applied there as a compassionate euphemism. The same degradation happened with IDIOTAmong the Greeks, he was the one who dealt with particular and private affairs, distancing himself from public affairs and social life.
The STEWARDESS many years ago they were the queen’s maids in charge of her trousseau. Nothing to walk encarapitada in an airplane attending to fears, requests, cravings and compliments of the passengers, so she has suffered ennoblement. He SEMAPHORE that today regulates mobility was in the past an optical telegraph used on the coasts to communicate with ships by means of signals. If today we understand how EXTRAVAGANT the bizarre, strange, apart from the common, formerly in the ecclesiastical regime this was the name given to burial rights.
If a comparison is made between the meaning that some words had in the old dictionaries and the most recent ones, these changes in meaning are also evident. A publication by BBC News Mundo (2020) explains that the word FORMIDABLE in the “New Lexicographical Treasure of the Spanish Language” (NTLLE), in its 1780 edition it meant “horrifying, terrifying, and that instills astonishment and fear”. Today we use it to imply that something was fabulous, amazing, or out of the ordinary.
The same dictionary in 1611 said that RETIRED it was only a “small and secluded room in the most secret part of the house, and more secluded”. Today, this is the name given to the place where we empty the bladder and the belly. The old dictionary also reveals that BIZARRO It was synonymous with “generous, encouraged, gallant, full of noble spirit, freshness and courage.” Today, on the other hand, what is strange, out of the ordinary and even crazy is designated as such.
The 1495 dictionary told us that VILLAIN He was the one who lived in a villa. Currently, a villain is someone who commits negative or harmful actions, “the bad guy” or antagonist of comics and movies. ALGID in the NTLLE of 1853 it meant “that freezes”, it is not known how over time it came to mean the hottest, most tense or critical point in a matter.
Apart from this dictionary, FLIRTATIOUS it arises from the French coquette- from coq ‘cock’- because flirts flaunt themselves in the presence of women like a rooster among chickens. Also curious are the origins of words like POISON which contradictorily comes from Venus, name of the Roman goddess of love. She designated an aphrodisiac potion that could have lethal effects. The word SPRING It comes from lentil, because in the fourteenth century the small glasses used as glasses were compared to lentils because of their size.
It is also conjectured that the expression OK (Okey) that has become universal to mean “everything is fine” arose when during the civil war in the United States, the troops arrived and were received by the anguished relatives of combatants. They painted OK on blackboards with what they meant “0 killed” or “Zero dead”. More curious is the origin of YUCATAN as it is called a peninsula of Mexico. It is said that the Spanish conquistadors questioned an indigenous man they found about the name of that area and he replied “Yu catán” which he meant “I am not from here”.
A similar case is the famous anecdote of the origin of the name of those curious animals that are the KANGAROOS. The English settlers, amazed at the jumping animal, asked an Australian aborigine about the name of the species and he said “Kan ghu ru” which he meant “I don’t understand you”. There are so many curious, paradoxical, contradictory and amazing stories behind the words we use. Inquiring about this is an opportunity to celebrate the cultural and historical wealth hidden in the language we inherited.
ABEL MEDINA SIERRA/ SPECIAL FOR THE PYLON