Quote (Santara @ Apr 3 2020 10:55am)
TIL "adding meanings" doesn't mean "adding meanings."
Can meanings get removed?
I gotta go to work so I'll just finish the argument here
Meanings can definitely get removed, since prior to being a bundle of sticks the definition of faggot included a burdensome old woman and you don't find that in any dictionaries, and if I can add and remove definitions then I can remove old usages and replace entirely new ones, and that has absolutely changed the definition. The only way it doesn't is if you get super pedantic and say "well the definitions didn't change because they were removed, you didn't change the actual definition", but that's stupid because words also have connotations that can change depending on the situation and context. In reality, words are defined by usage, and usage drifts over time. They aren't modified in discrete chunks of addition or removal.
This post was edited by Thor123422 on Apr 3 2020 10:07am