27 Words that Totally Changed Meanings - mental_floss List Show Ep. 521

Why do words change meaning? Whether through misuse or historical circumstances, some words that changed their meaning are easy to understand, and others can barely be explained.

Remember, The List Show is a weekly show where knowledge junkies get their fix of trivia-tastic information. This week, John tells you about some words that have completely shifted meaning over the years!

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[therealEmpyre]

The word pink used to mean small. That is why your smallest finger is called a pinkie. That is also how pink eye got its name, being mostly shut, so it is small. Then there were flowers whose shape resembled such eyes, and so they were called pink eyes. Guess what color those flowers have. Yep, they have the color we now call pink.

[dr.badguyreviews]

"Villain" used to mean a common villager, it changed over time because the high class saw the low class as sneaky and untrustworthy and eventually came to mean bad person. So the more things change...the more they stay the same.

[pintpullinggeek]

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means" - Inigo Montoya

[jedihorjus]

We should all still ask our selves if we really mean to say "basically, " "essentially, " or "practically" when we feel like saying "literally"

[superlemus]

After you used “silent majority” I was surprised you didn’t then reveal that “silent majority” used to refer to the dead.

[Adman-pj]

I LITERALLY cannot believe that literally means figuratively (literally speaking).

[AnEmmaGrogan]

Never will I ever use "literally" to mean "figuratively".

[milahoon]

I literally liked alot that they both explained what the words mean now and what they used to mean! As a non-native English speaker it made me understand so much more! Good job! :)

[annoloki]

Doom comes from "Dome" (but pron. "doom") meaning "judgement", such as "domesday" meaning "judgement day"

[zuke]

I've always said that any made up word is a real word if the intended meaning of the made up word is understood

[koretmulder]

As a flip-side to "awful', awesome didn't always mean 'really good'. It could mean awe-inspiring in an overwhelmed, terrifying way.

[njoldguy]

In the 1970's, "Do you want to hookup?" Meant "do you want to meet somewhere? " and that was all.

[Vanko]

But if "literally" doesn't mean "literally" anymore how would you say that something is said in a literal sense? That's just stupid.

[MrJPEzra]

This was literally the best video I’ve watched today in a figurative sense.

[josuelservin]

It's so nice to see John so relaxed for a change 😁

[IceMetalPunk]

Wow. When talking about the speech skills of politicians, you quote a politician's speech, and people think that's biased and irrelevant? Like... it's the most relevant to the topic anything could possibly be.

[virtuallore]

Yay for @vlogbrothers John Green back on mental floss. And Thank you for the book!

[SinisterSally]

while blockbuster was a term used for a larger bomb, because supposedly the bombs radius was about a city block, the movie term for blockbuster came from when people would line up for movie to sell. If the line extend pass the city block that the theater was in then it was a blockbuster.

[joebykaeby]

I like the way you handled the "literally" thing at the end there, because yeah it's stupid that that pseudo-sarcastic use of the word has gone mainstream but at the same time that's how language evolves - if we'd stifled that kind of language change back in the 1500s we'd all still be talking like Shakespeare.

[bobfox]

I think it's so cool how language changes over time, and very strange how some people try to fight it.