20 Common Words That Used to Mean Completely Different Things

Nice

Dates back to: Circa 1300

Original meaning: Ignorant or foolish

Today’s meaning: Pleasant, kind or agreeable

Nice is a word that “has been on quite a colloquial adventure,” according to Zafarris. It’s a contraction of the Latin nescius, which means ignorant or literally not knowing. Over the next few centuries, nice became what linguists call a polysemic word—one with many meanings, often shifting depending on context. “It meant foolish, then wanton, then ostentatious, then fussy, then delicate and then precise. And then from precise, it went to agreeable or pleasant,” she explains.

Quite the journey from insult to compliment for this nice little word!

Villain

Dates back to: 1303

Original meaning: A farmhand or peasant

Today’s meaning: A wicked or criminal character

“A villain was originally simply a word for a peasant or a poor farmer in Old French,” Zafarris says. “It’s from the Latin villainous, meaning farmhand, and is related to the word villa, which was originally a word for [something] like a country house or a farm, not necessarily like an elaborate tourist destination in Italy.”

Eventually, the upper classes viewed peasants as crude, untrustworthy and unrefined, and that bias gradually tainted the word. “The word evolved because people started using it as a classist pejorative,” she adds. “It was a way to call someone trashy and low class, and therefore implied that they were a bad guy or a scoundrel.” And that altered meaning stuck.

Fizzle

Dates back to: Circa 1533

Original meaning: To break wind quietly

Today’s meaning: To fail weakly or fade out

Fizzle originally meant to break wind silently. The word is likely imitative in origin, mimicking the soft, airy sound of a quiet toot. The way a silent fart sputters out led the word to evolve to its current meaning of fading out. Yes, you read that right—and seriously, we couldn’t make this stuff up!

An interesting side note: Fizzle comes from the Middle English feist, which is also the origin of the word feisty. Prior to the 1800s, feist was a word for a small dog. “And while this definition of feist is apt for belligerent or yappy little dogs,” Zafarris says, “it shifted over [in the 19th century] to mean a farty or stinky little dog.”

Cute

Dates back to: 1731

Original meaning: Sharp or clever

Today’s meaning: Adorably attractive

Cute is a shortening of the word acute, which can be used to describe a triangle that’s less than 90 degrees or a sharp (or severe) pain.

In the early 1800s, it still meant clever, according to Zafarris, but often with a negative tone, “suggesting someone who’s being cute, like too clever.” Then in the mid-1800s, people began to use it to refer to children or animals who were attractively clever, “complimenting someone for being both smart and adorable.” Eventually, the clever part dropped, and cute “became a word for small and charming things.”

Egregious

Dates back to: Circa 1550

Original meaning: Distinguished or remarkably good

Today’s meaning: Shockingly bad

The word comes from the Latin egregious and literally means “standing out from the flock” (ex = out of, grex = flock or herd). The evolution of this word—from remarkably good to remarkably bad—according to Zafarris, is an example of pejoration, when a word becomes more negative in connotation over time. Per the Oxford English Dictionary, the negative meaning appears to have arisen as an ironic use of the original positive sense of the word.

Terrific

Dates back to: 1667

Original meaning: Causing terror, or frightful

Today’s meaning: Excellent or amazing

Here we have the opposite process at work for a word that’s changed meaning over time. The evolution of terrific is an example of amelioration, when a word becomes more positive in connotation over time, according to Zafarris. “In the Victorian era, in particular, we see a lot of words that would on their face imply something negative start to mean something positive, like terrific or smashing,” she says. “And that’s a function of slang, of colloquial use.”

Spinster

Dates back to: 1380

Original meaning: A woman who spins thread as an occupation

Today’s meaning: An older unmarried woman

Do you know why we refer to never-married older women as spinsters? (I often use that word to refer to myself, in a self-aware way.) It’s because spinning thread or yarn was a common and respectable occupation for single women who had no spouse to support them financially. In Middle English, says Zafarris, -ster was the feminine agent noun ending for all these occupations: “A seamstress was called a sewster. A whitster was a woman who bleached cloth. A webster was a woman weaver. These were all words for tradeswomen.” (By the way, if a man were doing a job, the occupation ended in -er: brewer, cobbler, butcher.)

In time, as society increasingly emphasized marriage as the norm for women, the word spinster was used less to describe occupation or status and more to judge a woman’s perceived failure to land a husband.

Awful

Dates back to: Circa 1175

Original meaning: Full of awe, or worthy of reverence

Today’s meaning: Very bad or terrible

The original English word meant “full of awe”—that is, inspiring reverence, wonder or fear, especially in relation to something grand or divine. But, Zafarris says, one in awe (of God, for instance) could also be fearful, which isn’t necessarily a good thing.

With time, the word’s emphasis shifted from awe-inspiring to simply fearful or dreadful, and then to just plain bad. These days awful is definitely the opposite of awesome.

Clue

Dates back to: 1611

Original meaning: A ball of yarn

Today’s meaning: A piece of evidence or a hint

Greek mythology led to the current meaning of clue: Theseus used a ball of thread (spelled clew in earlier English) to help him find his way out of the labyrinth after he slayed the Minotaur. That metaphor caught on: A clue became “something that can help you find your way or untangle confusion,” says Zafarris. Today, it’s a piece of evidence or information that helps solve a problem, puzzle or mystery—or a fun board game.

Guy

Dates back to: 1800

Original meaning: A grotesquely dressed person

Today’s meaning: A man; informally, any person

Guy is a perfect example of a words that’s changed meaning over time and how language can take a hard left turn—shifting from a specific historical figure to a casual, everyday word. The word traces back to Guy Fawkes, who was part of a 1605 effort by English Catholic dissidents to bomb the House of Lords and assassinate the Protestant King James. This misadventure became the basis for Guy Fawkes Day, an annual celebration of the plot’s failure, marked by fireworks and the burning of an effigy of Fawkes, known as (you guessed it) a guy. As a result of his infamy, according to Protestant royalists, says Zafarris, the name guy became embedded into the English language as a pejorative. And because these effigies were often made from old clothes stuffed with straw, the word guy started to mean a grotesque or ragged-looking man.

The derogatory sense faded with popular usage, Zafarris says. Now, “it’s just any old guy. Separation from the historical event effectively defanged it.” But part of the reason that guy became so generic is probably because words like gal were already used as early as the 1790s as casual alternatives to girl. “And English loves alliteration and parallelism, so gal and guy just go together,” she notes.

Broadcast

Dates back to: 1707

Original meaning: To scatter seeds by hand over a wide area

Today’s meaning: To transmit radio or television signals, or to deliver information to a wide audience

The word broadcast is a great example of a word that changed meaning over time—from a very physical action to a technological one. Broadcast was coined in agriculture: sowing seeds by hand over a wide area. “In the mid-1800s, Zafarris says, “it was extended metaphorically to mean the dissemination of information. And then in the early 1900s, it was used to describe radio programs.”

These days, it can be used for any form of mass communication.

Hussy

Dates back to: 1470

Original meaning: A housewife or housekeeper

Today’s meaning: A promiscuous or impudent woman

Hussy began life as a contraction of the Middle English word for housewife, from the Old English husewif (pronounced huzzif). According to Zafarris, “It wasn’t a pejorative term for women and girls until the mid–17th century, when the term curt hussy became popular for a woman who talks back or behaves improperly. Initially, hussy was attached to negative adjectives: rude or pert or disrespectful. But eventually those adjectives dropped off, and the word itself took on the notion of a woman who behaves badly.”

Today, there’s no connection between the words. I mean, the show isn’t called The Real Hussies of New York.

Backlog

Dates back to: 1684

Original meaning: Largest log in the hearth

Today’s meaning: Large number of jobs to be done

Originally, a backlog was a literal log. “You would put it at the rear of the fireplace to support the other burning wood,” says Zafarris. “And then in the 1880s, it extended to mean something stored up for future use or a reserve because this big log is going to hold a flame much longer. Then, in the 20th century, it kind of evolved into this modern sense of unfinished work stored up for later.”

So we’d probably be pleased to encounter the old meaning of backlog and a warm cozy fire. The modern meaning of giving us more work to do? Not so much.

Dapper

Dates back to: Circa 1440

Original meaning: Strong, quick or brave

Today’s meaning: Neat and stylish in appearance

Dapper, borrowed from middle Dutch, originally meant strong, quick or nimble. “In the 15th century, it took on the sense of elegance in dress—through the sense of stylishness and neatness—perhaps implying the same sort of like precision that you would affiliate with being strong or quick or nimble,” Zafarris says. “If you’re a dapper dresser, you’re precise in your appearance: Everything is tailored correctly, and you look exactly as you should.”

Flirt

Dates back to: 1532

Original meaning: To flick or toss something

Today’s meaning: To behave romantically or playfully toward someone

Flirt was “originally a word for flicking or [doing] some sort of rapid movement like that. The Online Etymology Dictionary notes that the 1660s phrase “to flirt a fan” meant to snap it open or shut with a brisk motion—a gesture associated with the coquette’s arsenal, which may have contributed to the word’s later shift in meaning.

In addition, Zafarris says, “the notion would be, perhaps, to flit around the room or behave playfully and provocatively, while you’re around your crush. By the 1800s, flirt had been divorced from its physical flitting sense and shifted entirely to romantic teasing.”

Naughty

Dates back to: Circa 1400

Original meaning: Having nothing, or poor or needy

Today’s meaning: Guilty of misbehavior, or lacking in taste or propriety

The word naughty comes from an Old English word that literally means “no thing.” In the 14th century, naughty was more literal. “It meant needy. It described people who had naught, or nothing,” Zafarris explains. “The word naught was also a word for an evil act, likely based on the idea that someone who is evil is lacking in goodness and morality.”

She adds that “there is an element of class bias here based on the assumption that someone who has nothing is prone to criminal acts, or somehow even earned an impoverished lot in life because they’re morally undeserving.”

These days, naughty isn’t wicked so much as misbehaving in minor ways (“a naughty toddler”) or engaging in slightly risqué behavior (“a naughty joke”).

Wench

Dates back to: Circa 1300

Original meaning: A young girl or servant

Today’s meaning: A derogatory term for a woman

Wench falls under the same category as hussy. Its root is the Middle English wenchel, meaning child, but most often a girl. “It’s always been used in a diminutive sense, like a small girl,” Zafarris says. “And it’s pretty common for words like that to have a pejorative edge later in their lives.”

In time, wench came to refer more specifically to a female servant or working-class young woman. And as it evolved, Zafarris explains, wench was still used in a diminutive way, but class-wise. It’s basically the Middle English equivalent of the modern tick of referring to grown women as girls.

Around the 15th century, wench started to imply a promiscuous woman or even a prostitute, especially when used by men of higher status. (No doubt you’ve seen the Pirate Wench costumes at the Halloween store.)

Pretty

Dates back to: Old English (450–1150)

Original meaning: Cunning or crafty

Today’s meaning: Attractive or pleasing

Pretty is from an Old English word meaning trick, and it had no relation to beauty. Originally, you could use it to mean clever, wily or skillful. Then, says Zafarris, it began to refer to “things that were pleasing because they were skillful or interesting to watch. And it shifted to attractive, first for actions and then for people.”

Pretty‘s usage as an appearance-focused adjective, meaning pleasing to the eye, especially in a delicate or dainty way, appears in the Oxford English Dictionary in the 15th century. And that’s the meaning we still use today.

Weird

Dates back to: Old English (450–1150)

Original meaning: Fate or destiny

Today’s meaning: Strange or unusual

The original meaning of wyrd, the Old English predecessor to this word, is fate or destiny. “It was often used as a word relating to supernatural beings who had the power to control fate,” says Zafarris. “Some Germanic and Greco-Roman myths included a group of witch-like sisters, who were thought to have power over human destiny, called the fates or the weird sisters.” (Remember the witches in Macbeth?)

So, Zafarris adds, “you can see the way it has shifted into meaning the occult and the uncanny, and then the strange or eerie.” That transition to the modern meaning, per the Oxford English Dictionary, began in the early 1800s.

Matrix

Dates back to: Circa 1425

Original meaning: The womb, or the uterus of a mammal

Today’s meaning: A structure or an environment in which things are embedded, or a rectangular array of symbols or mathematical expressions arranged in rows and columns

Matrix is related to the word mother (mater) because it means womb or uterus. In the 16th and 17th century, Zafarris says, the word was used in printing to refer to a mold for casting letters or type as well, “basically something that holds something else.”

By the 19th and 20th centuries, matrix took on its mathematics sense based on rectangular arrays, and was later used in computing and science as a structure or an environment in which things are embedded. “It’s certainly not an accident that in the film The Matrix, these characters are rebirthed into womb-like pods. But it is referring to computerized matrices as well.”

Words are time travelers in disguise. Each carries echoes of the past, even when we use them without a second thought. Their meanings twist and turn with culture, class, humor and habit, reminding us that language isn’t fixed—it’s fluid.

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Sources:

• Jess Zafarris, etymology expert, founder of Useless Etymology, co-host of the Words Unravelled podcast and author of several books, including Words from Hell; phone interview, July 10, 2025
• Merriam-Webster
• Online Etymology Dictionary
• Oxford English Dictionary