ABSTRACT
A word can change its meaning sometimes subtly if it is retained when the referent is replaced. The word pen is from Latin penna ‘feather’ and came to be applied to feathers used for writing that is quill pens. Anticipate means literally ‘before-take’ and its traditional meaning is to act in advance, to prepare for in advance and perhaps forestall. The word promiscuous provides an example of somewhat different type. It has been in the language since the sixteenth century meaning ‘indiscriminate’ as in promiscuous carnage or ‘mixed’ as in the heading list of promiscuous examples. The original meaning in Latin is simply ‘to do with the city’, but in Latin urbanus came to mean ‘polished, refined, cultivated’, that is to exhibit the sophistication thought to be characteristic of a city person. When a word changes meaning or a new word replaces an old one, the previous meaning or older word can live on in set phrases, derived forms and compounds.
