I am doing my speech in my Oral Communications class next week on supporting the legalization of gay marriage. There is one section of my speech that I need your help on. I need words that once defined one thing but today have come to mean something totally different. I have a few such as, gay used to mean happy but now is used to refer to someone's sexuality and nimrod once defined a hunter or warrior but now means a silly person. You guys have any others?
"f*****" originally meant wood thrown on a fire. "Gay" originally meant merry. "Queer" originally meant strange. "Queen" originally meant the wife of a King. "Flamer" originally meant meat cooked over an open flame. "Fudge-Packer" originally meant someone who worked for Hershey's. "Butt-slammer bar" originally meant a smoking/cigar bar. "Dyke" originally meant a small dam/jetty. "Carpet-licker" originally was a term for a cleaning supply.
Technology and slang tends to change the meanings of many words or add new meanings. For instance remember when "mouse" just meant small furry animal with a long tail. If you're looking for words with changed meaning just flip through the dictionary at common words and chances are you'll find multiple meanings. On a side note: There was a MadTV skit a few years ago that had a secret panel of African Americans coming up with new slang terms so they could keep ahead of whites. They were looking for something to replace "Da Bomb" since one of them had heard a white guy use it on a golf course. They came up with "Da Ebola" instead. I was kinda hopin that would catch on so I could say stuff like "That alley-oop from Stevie to Cat was Da Ebola!".
