Words change their meanings, just as organisms evolve. We would impose an enormous burden on our economy if we insisted on payment in cattle every time we identified a bonus as a pecuniary advantage (from the Latin pecus, or cattle, a verbal fossil from a former commercial reality).
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Language evolves like biology, keeping old forms as fossils even when their original context is gone, allowing us to use words without being bound by their literal origins.
- In plain terms
- Words change meaning over time like living things, so we dont need to act out their original literal definitions.
- What can you take from it?
- Language adapts over time, freeing us from literal historical constraints.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do fossilized words limit our thinking?
- When does etymology matter most?
Another view
Some specialized terms may still require precise historical definitions.
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