Words can swing wildly in meaning
A word can start in one place and drift somewhere completely different. Linguists track shifts like pejoration and amelioration, where meanings turn darker or brighter.Language Change: When words change their minds
Villain used to mean farmhand
When villain entered English, it meant peasant or farmhand. It later picked up the sense of low-born or scoundrel, and only the negative meaning survived.Language Change: When words change their minds
