A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present
1859
A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present
1859
First published in 1859, this pioneering work opened the hidden history of English to general readers. Trench was fascinated by a disturbing fact: we read the same words as our ancestors, yet we often understand something entirely different. 'Silly' once meant 'blessed.' 'Sordid' once meant 'dirty in appearance.' 'Nice' once meant 'foolish.' Through dozens of carefully chosen examples, he demonstrates that meaning is not fixed but fluid, that every word carries the sediment of centuries, and that reading older literature requires a kind of archaeological attention to these shifts. The book is not a dry catalog but a series of small revelations, each word a window into how the English-speaking world once thought and felt. Trench writes with the reverent curiosity of a man uncovering buried treasure, and he invites his readers to become excavators themselves. More than a glossary, this is a manifesto for linguistic humility: the present moment is just one stop on a word's endless journey through time.
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Trench, Richard Chenevix. A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present. Lex, lex-books.com/book/a-select-glossary-of-english-words-used-formerly-in-senses-different-from-their--3d974431-91ba-46ea-8370-1ec0eb8f78df.Trench, R. C. (1859). A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/a-select-glossary-of-english-words-used-formerly-in-senses-different-from-their--3d974431-91ba-46ea-8370-1ec0eb8f78dfTrench, Richard Chenevix. A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/a-select-glossary-of-english-words-used-formerly-in-senses-different-from-their--3d974431-91ba-46ea-8370-1ec0eb8f78df.
