The Unexpected Evolution of Language (27 page)

“Truant’s” origins include words referring to everything from beggars to scoundrels to buffoons (see entry for “buffoon”). In other words, the suggestion was that these people
chose
to be beggars or ludicrous figures (see entry for “ludicrous”). They weren’t out on the streets due to bad luck, rather, to bad choices.

The modern truant is known for his (usually “his”) poor choices and for his buffoonish behavior. It’s most often used to describe children who skip school.

U

umpire

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
from “noumper,” meaning odd, as in, not even

NEW DEFINITION:
decision maker during sporting events

Like the word “apron” (see entry for “apron”), “umpire” not only once had a different meaning, it had an entirely different spelling.

The French word that gave rise to “umpire” starts with an “n.” But when it got translated into English, people misheard the word. Instead of hearing “un noumper,” most thought the word was “un oumper.” Thus, after a few more spelling shifts, the word “umpire” forever lost the “n” with which it should begin.

Now, for the meaning change. Umpire, or “noumper,” meant “an odd number,” but it was used primarily as a word related to a third party who settles disputes between two parties. For example, say two guys are fighting over a property boundary. A third is brought in to make an impartial decision about the situation. This “odd man” was the “noumper.”

Since the word already suggested someone who settles arguments, it came to be used in sporting events, which often have disputed plays. Umpires, without their “n’s,” were first used (or at least first called umpires) during boxing matches in the eighteenth century.

undertaker

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
businessman

NEW DEFINITION:
funeral director; mortician

Historically, an “undertaker” was any entrepreneur or businessperson. The word comes from the noun “undertake,” which means “take on responsibility.” If you were an “undertaker,” you were a go-getter, a self-starter, a real live wire.

One specific type of undertaker was the “funeral undertaker,” but, presumably, there were “millinery undertakers” or “cobbler undertakers” or “what-have-you undertakers” throughout the English-speaking world.

Most likely, the reason for the change in definition was short life spans. At a time when the average life span was forty—thanks to all manner of diseases, plagues, and epidemics—“funeral undertakers” were busier than many other “undertakers.” Eventually, as the word came to be associated mostly with practitioners of the “mortal arts,” other “undertakers” steered away from the name. The transformation of “undertaker” to mean “mortician” was complete by the eighteenth century.

Nowadays, the only undertaker who doesn’t embalm corpses is Mark Calaway, a professional wrestler who goes by the name “The Undertaker,” and who dresses like some sort of demon from the Wild West.

unfair

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
ugly

NEW DEFINITION:
not just; not equitable

The Old English word from which “unfair” derives meant “ugly.” A maiden with whom no one wanted to dance around a Maypole was “unfair.”

The word took a slight metaphorical jump during the Middle Ages. “Ugly” already could refer to more than just looks, so something “unfair” became something vile and contemptible. It was “ugly” as in an “ugly fight,” “ugly situation,” an “ugly mess.”

By the eighteenth century, “unfair” no longer had such an evil connotation. It softened a bit to the word used today by every teenager who’s ever been told she can’t borrow the car because she got a D in English class.

V

vibrant

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
agitated; edgy

NEW DEFINITION:
lively

In the mid-sixteenth century, “vibrant” meant agitated. It came from the same root as “vibrate.” Someone “vibrant” seemed to be vibrating internally, ready at any moment to explode into senseless rage or a neurotic rant. He was edgy and filled a room with negative energy.

Over the next 300 years, the word “vibrant” did what most edgy people never do: It actually chilled out. The word gradually lost its negative connotation and came to describe people who are full of life and always seem in motion. After all, that’s what “agitate” technically means: to move rapidly.

villain

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
someone from the country; someone poor; someone “low-born”

NEW DEFINITION:
a bad guy in a book, movie, play, etc.

Class-consciousness is not a modern invention. There have always been “one-percenters,” as the word “villain” proves.

Originally, “villain” referred to someone from a farm or a small village: a hayseed, a yahoo, a bumpkin. Most likely, this “villain” didn’t have much money. He didn’t have impeccable manners. He belched and farted and drank too much elderberry wine. In short: he wasn’t a bad guy, just someone with coarse manners and not much coin.

Soon after the word began to appear in the 1300s, it began to take on a more distinctly pejorative connotation. Someone poor and uncultured became associated with someone base and immoral. Thus, a “villain” wasn’t just someone from “the sticks,” he was someone vile and loathsome.

By the early nineteenth century, “villain” lost all connection to harmless rustics and referred exclusively to miscreants (see entry for “miscreant”), rapscallions, reprobates, and guys in black cowboy hats.

W

weird

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
fate; destiny

NEW DEFINITION:
unusual; odd

Fans of the Bard probably assume that the three “weird sisters” who plant ideas in Macbeth’s head are ugly, scary, weird-looking hags. But they were called “weird” because in Shakespeare’s day, “weird” was related to fate or destiny. The sisters were “weird” because they could foretell Macbeth’s future.

In fact, Shakespeare didn’t invent the “weird sisters”; they can be found throughout Middle English literature. They are the “three fates” who determine human destiny. However, since they almost invariably are described as looking like stereotypical witches, the term “weird” ultimately began to take on its modern-day meaning of “bizarre” or “uncanny.”

By the middle of the nineteenth century, the original meaning of “weird” had nearly faded away. And now most productions of
Macbeth
feature “weird sisters” who look, well, weird and scary.

It’s Uncanny!

A word related to “weird” that also has undergone some changes is “uncanny.” Originally, the word meant “mischievous.” “Canny” means careful, prudent, and cautious; thus, someone “uncanny” is none of those things and is therefore mischievous.

By the eighteenth century, “uncanny” had become a synonym for “weird,” “strange,” and “mysteriously unsettling.” For most, the only time you ever hear the word is when someone is described as having an “uncanny resemblance” to someone—often a celebrity, a relative from several generations back, or even a complete stranger.

From the 1930s to the 1960s, the actor William Henry Pratt was so well known for his signature horror roles that he was often described ➤

as uncanny. Better known by his stage name, Boris Karloff, “Karloff the Uncanny” played the quintessential “weird and unsettling” parts of Frankenstein’s monster and the mummy.

wistful

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
attentive; focused

NEW DEFINITION:
sadly yearning

In the seventeenth century, “wistful” derived from an older word that meant “intent.” Thus, the word could describe what we today call a “stalker.” You could be “wistful”—intent, focused—on someone’s wife. Think of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s
The Great Gatsby
—Gatsby was “wistful” on Daisy Buchanan.

Over time, the word “wistful” dropped its origin word and got adopted by the word “wishful.” By the eighteenth century, the “stalker” connotation was gone, and the word came to mean “marked by wishing for something one probably cannot get.” Thus, you can be wistful about a romantic interest from the past, just as Gatsby is wistful about Daisy … to the point of stalking her to East Egg, New York.

wizard

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
a wise man; a sage

NEW DEFINITION:
a magician; a sorcerer; one who “works magic” on objects like computers that stymie many of us

In the Middle Ages, magic and science were practically conjoined twins. It was difficult to ascertain where one ended and the other began. Thus, “wizard” derives from a word that means “wise” and probably referred to men who could foretell the future.

If you believed then—as many did—that prognostication was a science and not a parlor trick, then you would think a “wizard” was exceedingly wise. By the end of the Middle Ages, many people stopped believing in the validity of soothsayers but not, apparently, in the reality of magic. In 1600, “wizards” referred to those who had magical powers. By the early 1900s, most wizards could only be found in storybooks, such as L. Frank Baum’s about the merry old Land of Oz.

Both senses of the word exist when you call someone a “wizard” at math or physics or computers. While we struggle, they make difficult stuff look easy. They’re so wise, it’s like magic!

Y

yen

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
craving for opium (often written as yen-yen)

NEW DEFINITION:
strong desire; yearning

No one speaks of a drug addict having a yen for heroin. “Yen” suggests a yearning, not a need. Therefore, we use the word “addiction” for those who crave drugs. Yet, when the word first entered English it was related specifically to opium addiction.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, traders made huge profits getting Chinese peasants addicted to opium. In part, the attraction to opium resulted from a ban on tobacco imposed by the emperor during the seventeenth century. As large numbers of Chinese immigrated to the United States, some brought their addiction with them … as well as the word “in-yan,” which described it.

To Americans, the Chinese word sounded like “yen-yen,” so that is what the word for opium addiction became in English. Ultimately, the second “yen” was dropped. Gradually, the word lost its explicit connection to opium addiction and became instead a word for strong desire.

Z

zany

ORIGINAL DEFINITION:
clown; fool

NEW DEFINITION:
foolish; buffoonish

The word “zany” started out life as a clown (see entry for “clown”).

The life story of “zany” begins in sixteenth-century Italy. The word actually is a diminutive of Giovanni, or John, in English. A “zany” was a stock character of the Italian stage. He would wander amid the principal actors and mock or imitate them.

Think, for example, of how you used to imitate your little sister in order to make her cry. A “zany” was something like that. Sounds annoying, but it was a common character, so people of the day must have loved their zanies.

The word began to fade but gained a new lease on life in the nineteenth century. It stopped being a noun. In those days, “zanies” as characters were out of favor; thus, “zany” took on a new existence as an adjective that might have described those old stock characters.

Bibliography

Anxiety and Depression Association of America.
www.adaa.org/understanding-anxiety
.