Lesson 5: Changing Meanings
Up until now, all the correspondences we have been looking at have involved fairly direct cognates--words in German and in English that have the same or nearly the same meanings: "der Apfel" and "apple," "schlafen" and "to sleep," "die Tochter" and "daughter."

But not all etymological correspondences are between words with exactly the same meanings. Over time, languages change. New words are added and old words fall out of use; existing words shift meaning, become more specific or more general, more negative or more positive. Think of the following examples in English:
 

• modem (a word that has been added)
• groovy (a word that has fallen out of use)
• gay (a word whose meaning has shifted)
• battery--for battery cell (a word that has become more specific)
• cheesy--including the secondary meaning tasteless (a word that has become more general)
• crippled (a word that has become more negative)
• nasty--in its slang meaning (a word that has become more positive)

Words in different languages may change differently. A word that originally meant the same thing in the Old High German/Old English phase may have by now acquired two separate meanings in German and English. Fortunately, the changes are not usually so drastic that we cannot imagine what the common link between the words is:
 

German:	das Bein=leg	das Gift=poison	die Pest=plague, epidemic
English Correspondence:	the bone	the gift	a pest

 

• The German word "Bein" originally meant "bone" until it became more specific, referring to the leg bone, and then more general again, referring to the whole leg.
• The German word "Gift" originally meant, generally and neutrally, anything given by someone to someone else. It then became more specific, referring to the giving of a dosage of medicine, and then euphemistically, in a negative turn, to the "giving" of poison.
• The English word "pest" originally meant "pestilence, plague." It then became, if not exactly positive, then certainly less strong, referring simply to a bothersome person.

You may have heard of the concept of "false friends": words in two languages that look the same or similar but have different meanings, such as "ausländisch" and "outlandish." In reality, these words might be better called "long-lost cousins." The similarities between the words of most "false friend" pairs are not similar by chance, but because of their related etymologies. The English word "outlandish" used to mean simply "foreign," like its German counterpart, until it became more exaggerated, referring to anything or anyone strange or bizarre.

If you understand such "false friends" as formerly related words that have undergone subsequent changes in meaning rather than arbitrarily similar-looking words, you will have a much easier time committing them to memory; rather than confuse you, the "false friends" will help you remember the new, changed meanings.
 

This page last updated March 12, 2002.
© 2002 Jennifer Bjornstad