May We Borrow Your Language? by Philip Gooden

Author:Philip Gooden [Gooden, Philip]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784977979
Publisher: Head of Zeus Ltd.

TERRIFIC

∼ (1667) ∽

JOHN MILTON ’S EPIC POEM Paradise Lost (1667) tells the story of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, their own paradise lost. Before the Fall, all of the animals in paradise were docile and harmless, even the snake who is destined to be the villain of the piece. Milton describes it as the ‘subtlest beast of all the field,/Of huge extent sometimes, with brazen eyes/And hairy main terrific.’ Leaving aside the poet’s description of the snake’s crest as hairy, we might wonder what he meant by terrific. Not ‘impressive’, though it probably was that, and certainly not ‘excellent’ as in the modern application of the word. Milton’s terrific – the first time the word had been used in English – was much closer to the Latin root of terrificus (‘terrifying’). About a century later, the word had slipped, or perhaps grown, to describe something ‘of great size’ or ‘excessive’ as it still does in, say, ‘He made a terrific fuss.’ By the late nineteenth century it becomes synonymous with ‘splendid’, ‘fine’.

This process by which a word sheds its old meaning, rather like a snake shedding its skin, and takes on a new and arguably improved sense is known in the linguistic trade as ‘amelioration’. So something terrific is now anything but terrifying. ‘Pretty’ was once the equivalent of modern ‘crafty’ (which used to mean skilful), while if you’d called someone ‘nice’ in the Middle Ages they might well have been offended since it suggested they were foolish, simple-minded. The opposite process, whereby a positive word takes on negative overtones, is called ‘pejoration.’ This is more usual than amelioration, probably on account of the old mud-sticking principle. It is hard for an expression to clean itself up, easy for it to get dirty. ‘Awful’ once meant ‘inspiring awe and respect’, while ‘dreadful’ indicated someone timid (i.e. full of dread). One of the early meanings of ‘horrid’ was ‘bristling’ (Latin: horridus ). At one time ‘egregious’ suggested that the person or thing so described was known for their good qualities, while now it’s their bad qualities. A curious example of pejoration concerns Walt Disney’s best-known creation. Mickey Mouse made his cartoon debut in Steamboat Willie (1928). Within a few years the name of the mouse was being used to denote something small, insignificant, pointless.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.