Ten Things Tuesday- Meanings of Words

Meanings of words evolve over time.
Words are shortened.
Sometimes they are completely different.

That's what this week's ten things Tuesday is about.
Words that have changed over time.

1. Jelly
    Once, jelly was only known as something inside of a donut or what you put on toast. Now, it is also the new way of saying jealous. Not sure if someone was being lazy or just thought it was cute when they came up with that.

2. Thong
    I may have mentioned this before. A thong is now a style of underwear that is like walking around with a permanent wedgie. When I grew up, you had a pair of thongs and you wore them on your feet.

3. Flip flop
    A flip flop is what I used to call a thong. A flip flop also has another meaning. It means to go back and forth on the issues. Does anyone remember when John Kerry ran for president and people were waving flip flops around in protest at his rallies? Because he is the only politician ever to say one thing and do something else.

4. Coke
    Coke started out as Coca-Cola. It is also short for cocaine. Coca-Cola used to contain cocaine. The company still processes the coca leaves the same way and cocaine gets produced. (It's all legal. They got a pass.) It is just not added to the drink anymore. Where does the cocaine go? Take a guess, you might be right.

5. Fairy Tail
    It used to be spelled fairy tale and was a children's story. Now, the tale becomes tail and it becomes Japanese anime.

6. Disk
    It used to be a round celestial body like the sun. Disk was also known as a gardening term. You turned over the soil with a disk( there were actually lots of small disks on it). Now, disk basically refers to a floppy disk or other disk on the hard drive in your computer.

7. Alcohol
    Alcohol used to always mean rubbing alcohol. Alcohol has always been adult beverage, but it was never referred to as such. It used to be booze or hard liquor.

8. Rubber
    In some places, a rubber is known as an eraser. Many years ago, a rubber in the US is what we now call a condom. I still remember this song we had to watch in school about safe sex. "If you want to play it safe, use a rubber". In 2010 "Rubber" was a movie about a psychopathic tire. I am NOT making this up.

9. Trunk
    You can have the trunk of a tree or the trunk of a car. When referring to a person's body, the trunk used to mean torso since it was the main portion of the body- like the trunk is the main part of the tree. Now, it's called the core. A person's trunk is now the butt since on a car the trunk is in the back. Except the old Volkswagen Beetle.

10. Roughage
    Does anyone still say roughage? I think that last time I said roughage I got odd looks. The new term is FIBER. Same thing. Kindler, gentler word.

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Have a great Tuesday!