When words don’t work

Did you know that 1000 years ago to be “nice” was to be silly or foolish?

By the 1300s it had changed to mean shy and then fussy. By the 1400s it meant dainty and delicate. One hundred years after that it became precise (such as being “nice and early”), then it became delightful, and then thoughtful.

These days “nice” doesn’t really mean much at all, and your English teacher might tell you off for using such a wishy-washy sort of word.

Language is different to what it used to be. Ask your parents.

Thirty years ago hardly anybody used the word “like” to introduce a phrase (as in ‘He was like, “Don’t you do that!” and I was like, “I’ll do what I want”’) This was called Valley Girl talk, and was pretty much only heard in southern California. Not any more!

Once upon a time if you were to describe something as terrific you meant it was terrifying. Somehow terrific came to mean good, while terrible kept the original definition, meaning bad. Weird.

Similarly, if something was wicked, it was bad. Today the word means the opposite.

Maybe that is why it can be so confusing talking to older people sometimes. When they talk about your desk top, files and folders, they might be referring to actual objects, not just stuff on your computer.

And they probably wouldn’t talk about trash cans because that is a word which has only recently started rolling off the Aussie tongue, thanks to movies, TV shows and particularly computer software from the US.

But it’s not just older people that it can be difficult to talk to. It can be difficult talking to your mum or your dad, your friends, your boyfriend or girlfriend, the postman or the person calling you up wanting you to change your phone service. Communicating is hard (meaning difficult, not solid and inflexible)!