On 25.04.2013 11:31, Bryn M. Reeves wrote:
On 04/25/2013 12:31 AM, Joe Zeff wrote:
> On 04/24/2013 04:11 PM, Roger wrote:
>> Continuing to educate the masses is the only way that people will learn
>> the real meaning.
>
> As you can see here,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geezer, the original
> meaning of the term Geezer, as still used in the UK, is significantly
> different from how it's used in the US. Should we also be trying to get
> people to go back to that meaning? For that matter, how about the term
> geek:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geek#Etymology Language evolves, and
> pretending that it doesn't isn't going to do anybody any good. My
> advice is to ignore it and move on.
Exactly - go back to the middle ages and all children, whether male or
female, were called 'girls'. A son was a 'knave girl' and a daughter a
'gay girl'.
'Gay' as the modern term started off as 'gai' in France and referred
to 'courtly love'. It was later applied to promiscuous men and women
in the UK before morphing in the 20th century to its present definition.
Perhaps we should go back and educate the masses as to the "true"
meanings of all these words too? :-)
I always knew I would learn English language with Linux. :-)
Mateusz Marzantowicz