The Unexpected Evolution of Language (16 page)

Not long after “imbecile” gained some technical sheen, it was used as a generic, playground insult. Someone doing something others perceived as dumb—putting one’s tongue on a metal pole in the dead of winter, for example—might be called an imbecile by his buddies.

As a result of its adoption as an insult, “imbecile” began to fall out of use in psychological circles, and, as a medical term, it has gone to non-politically-correct heaven.

inmate

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
temporary (voluntary) dweller

NEW DEFINITION:
temporary or long-term (involuntary) dweller; prisoner

Being an “inmate” wasn’t so bad, once upon a time. Originally, it just meant someone who resided temporarily in a hospital, hotel, or dorm room. Of course, if you were forced to eat campus chow during that stint in a dorm, you might have
felt
like you were in jail.

Some etymologists believe the word was formed by combining “inn” (hotel) and “mate” (companion). Others believe it’s a combination of “mate” and “in” (inside). One way or the other, “inmate” was once a friendly word.

The word began to change in meaning in the nineteenth century, the same time as the modern prison system became popularized. Just remember, at one time, a prison was meant for a temporary stay, during which prisoners were to be rehabilitated and returned to society. Thus, “inmate” became a convenient, extant word one could use to describe these short-timers.

As the prison population began to grow and be filled more and more frequently with “permanent” residents, the word “inmate” lost its connection to voluntary activity and gained its association with involuntary confinement.

Panopticon

One father of the modern prison system is Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832). A proponent of utilitarianism, Bentham believed that anything that brings the most happiness to the most people is good. During his life, corporal punishment was common for many offenses, but Bentham believed that imprisonment was a better alternative. People would feel less pain, and they could be rehabilitated.

He devised a type of prison called a panopticon (meaning “see all”). Basically, it had a guard tower surrounded by several floors of prison cells. A guard could see every prisoner, but the inmates couldn’t see where the guard was looking.

Panopticons never caught on, but one prison modeled on it was Cuba’s Presidio Modelo. Opened in the 1920s, the prison closed in 1967. At one time, its most famous residents included young political dissidents Fidel and Raúl Castro.

inoculate

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
to graft; implant (gardening term)

NEW DEFINITION:
to vaccinate

“Inoculate” had nothing to do with medicine until at least the early 1800s. Prior to that, it was a gardening or botanical term. The word’s origin literally means “graft eye.” The idea is that by grafting the “eye,” or bud, of a plant into another, you can create a new strain of that plant. Even before Mendel “discovered” genetics in the nineteenth century, botanists knew you could get hardier strains of a plant by grafting different varieties together.

When a doctor inoculates you, she puts a tiny bit of a disease within you. The process is similar to grafting part of a plant onto another. As a result of this “grafting,” your body is able to build up resistance to that disease so that if a full-blown case of it comes your way, you will likely be able to fight it off. Thus, until inoculations gained a medical association, “inoculate” meant simply to graft or implant and did not make children (and some wussy adults) cry.

intoxicate

ORIGINAL MEANING:
to poison

NEW MEANING:
to make drunk

When a bartender says, “Name your poison,” she is being historically accurate.

The roots of this word go back to the Greek word “toxon,” which meant “bow,” as in “bow and arrow.” The ancient Greeks often tipped their arrows with poison, called “toxikon.” Latin borrowed these words and created the verb “intoxico,” which meant to poison. By the time the word entered English, it had become “intoxicate.”

Until the mid-fifteenth century, “intoxicate” had nothing to do with alcohol. One hundred years later, it had nothing to do with poison … except for alcohol poisoning, which remains a scourge of college campuses everywhere.

The shift occurred because many of the liquors common today began to be distilled in the second half of the fifteenth century (gin, schnapps, vodka, etc.). Until then, most people who drank imbibed wine. These new spirits had higher alcohol content than wine so people who drank them appeared poisoned.

When folks realized these drinkers weren’t poisoned, just drunk, the verb “intoxicate”—and its adjective “intoxicated”—gained an explicit connection to drinking alcohol.

invest

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
to clothe; to dress

NEW DEFINITION:
to commit money in hopes of a financial return

Originally, “invest” came from a Latin word meaning to clothe, cover, or surround. In the later Middle Ages, the word was used primarily to describe the literal or metaphorical act of putting on the vestments of an office. Someone says certain things, puts a funny hat on you, and voilà, you’re the Pope.

By the early modern era, the word began to gain its modern sense. Most attribute the first use of “investing,” as in gambling on an enterprise, to documents related to the East India Company, forerunner of the modern conglomerate. They traded everything from cotton and silk to opium.

Exactly how “putting on clothes” became “investing money” is not agreed upon by all etymologists. The principal contention is that the Latin word “investire” got mixed up with an Italian word of the same spelling. The Italian word has to do with clothing, but it does contain the modern meaning of “invest.” The shift in meaning also is metaphorical. If you invest your money, you’re “clothing” it in a business venture.

J

jack-in-the-box

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
thief; cheat

NEW DEFINITION:
child’s toy

At the time Shakespeare first picked up a quill, a “jack-in-the-box” was a thief who substituted empty boxes for boxes filled with goods. “Jack” already was a generic name for a man of low birth, a “nobody.” That’s the likely reason there was “jack” in the box. Anyone opening the box and finding nothing of value in it would have been in for a nasty surprise.

The toy, called a jack-in-the-box since at least the eighteenth century, acts on the same principle. An unsuspecting person—in this case, a child—figures out how to open the box and either screams in terror or squeals with delight.

One myth about how this particular toy developed traces the jack-in-the-box (even though it probably wasn’t called that at the time) to the story of a thirteenth-century clergyman who threw the devil into a boot in order to protect a British village. Obviously, anyone who got too close to that boot was in for a nasty surprise.

What on Earth Is a “Weasel,”
and Why Does It Pop?

The song linked inextricably to a jack-in-the-box is “Pop! Goes the Weasel.” The original lyrics are as follows: “Half a pound of tupenny rice / Half a pound of treacle. / That’s the way the money goes / Pop! Goes the weasel.” Huh?!

Clearly, the song is not about the animal. If it “popped,” then, presumably, that means it exploded. Gross. ➤

The song actually is about living in poverty, and its bizarre (to Yanks anyway) wording is related to Cockney slang. For Cockneys, “pop” is slang for pawn, and “weasel” is slang for a coat. Thus, after spending all your scant funds on food (rice, treacle), you’ve got to pawn your best Sunday coat.

jockey

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
boy; fellow

NEW DEFINITION:
person who “pilots” a racehorse

In America, someone named Jonathan is sometimes nicknamed Jack, which others might amend to “Jackie” if they’re close friends, for example. In Scotland and Northern England, “Jock” was common as a diminutive of Jonathan.

“Jock” or “jockey” became generically used to denote “some guy” or “that guy.” By the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, jockey (sometimes capitalized, sometimes not) began to get an unsavory reputation. If you called “some guy” a “jockey,” you were saying he was possibly a card cheater, a tramp, or a crooked horse dealer, which is likely where “jockey” and “horse” first became acquainted.

By 1670, “jockey” was common parlance for a person who rides horses during races. Remember that one meaning of “jockey” was boy. Since jockeys typically are small in stature, the word may have easily attached itself to these vertically challenged horse racers.

juggernaut

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
wagon for Hindu god

NEW DEFINITION:
unstoppable force or object

One of the principal Hindu gods is Vishnu. Sometimes he is worshipped directly, and at other times, he is worshipped through one of his ten avatars (physical incarnations), the most well-known (to Westerners) being Krishna.

Since at least the twelfth century, the community of Puri has celebrated Vishnu with an unusual annual ceremony. An image of the god is placed in a large, ceremonial wagon and pulled to another location across deep sand. The image of the god is called “Jagannatha,” which English speakers later transformed into juggernaut.

Obviously, it’s not easy to pull a heavy cart through deep sand. Vishnu’s followers showed their devotion through just such a herculean task. When Westerners first encountered this tradition, they saw that Vishnu’s followers often moved large objects out of the way rather than try to re-route the juggernaut. Sometimes, Westerners even observed people being crushed under the juggernaut’s heavy wheels.