A Book About Words Author:George Frederick Graham Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. Excerpt from book: Degeneracy Of Words 03CHAPTER IV. DEGENERACY OP WOKDS. One point to be observed in the nature and history of words is their tendency to contract in form and degenerate in meaning. A word whic... more »h, in the beginning of its career, has generally a favourable, or at any rate a not disparaging, meaning, becomes, as it grows older, weaker in effect and more contracted in form and signification, and, in most cases, falls into an unfavourable sense. It does not improve or extend, but contracts and deteriorates in meaning. Archbishop Trench uses this fact as an argument to prove the perversity and evil tendencies of mankind; and it must be admitted to have considerable force. Take the two verbs, to ' resent' and to ' retaliate.' The first of these means, etymologically, ' to feel back,' or 'feel in return.' Of course, one may feel kindly or unkindly, according to circumstances ; but we now never use this word in afavourable sense. We are never said to ' textit{resent' kindness or affection; but only injury, slander, ill deeds, and c. Again, the derivation of ' retaliate ' is from the Latin ' re ' (back) and ' talis ' (such) ; and it would naturally signify, ' to give back such' (as we have received). But we now retaliate offences or indignities, and never favours or benefits. These words were, however, once used in a much more extended sense. Dr. South, a celebrated preacher of Charles textit{II.'a time, in one of his sermons has the expression,' resenting God's favours,' which, according to the present restricted meaning of the word, would seem to a modern reader positively blasphemous. But in the seventeenth century the word ' resent' implied good as well as bad feeling; gratitude for benefits received as well as anger for injury done. This tendency to degenerate will appear, perhaps, more evidently if we inquire into t...« less