full is a tricky word. And it’s also a word that represents a rare case where dictionaries have made the meaning of the word more confusing than clearer.
full sounds like an emphatic way of saying “complete” or “complete”, and indeed in its oldest usage, dating back to the 1300s, it means “very complete and stylish.” rich; abundant.” It was later used to mean “full, well-balanced” and more figuratively for “a full and well-developed sound”, as in “a singer’s powerful voice”.
‘Fulsome’ can apply to excessive flattery, such as in “a student trying to get a good grade by praising the teacher wordlessly” or it can simply be abundance, as in “a grateful former student praises his former English teacher.”
So far, so good: the meanings of many words shift from concrete to more abstract meanings over time.
The Oxford English Dictionary record a parallel trajectory of the meaning of full, this time related to food rather than size. It originally meant “filling” or “heavy”, then “tends to cause nausea” and finally “excessive” or “tired from too much or too much repetition”. Another set of meanings, possibly derived from the use of “nausea”, include “smell” and “disgusting”. These meanings are all obsolete in modern English, and have historically been rarely excluded from this dictionary (however, the latter group is included in Merriam-Webster is not shortened). The more abstract meaning of “aesthetically, morally or generally offensive” remains in this dictionary, as does “beyond the bounds of good taste” or “excessive”. In fact, these meanings are still current, as are the “abundant,” “beautiful,” and “well-developed” meanings mentioned above.
When Samuel Johnson, working in England, entered for full in his famous 1755 dictionary, he recorded only the meaning of “nausea; offensive” and “of a rank and stench.” Writing by Noah Webster in 1828 american dictionary very similar, but he added a curious note:
These are the English definitions of full, but I have never seen such applications of the word in the United States. It seems full And Foul basically the same word, its main meaning is crammed, crowded, word meaning put in or put in. In the United States, the compound word plump get its meaning from fullin the sense of ridicule or satisfaction, and in England, full take its main meaning from stinky.
Webster’s assertion that full And Foul sharing an etymological root is incorrect. Full comes from Old English words spelled the same way, while Foul comes from Old English word fūl, which means “rotten.” Webster also later added an entry for plump:
Total; disgusted by simplicity, grossness or excess; EQUAL plump flattery or praise.
Webster should have simply added this definition to his entry for full; it is not a separate word, but an additional meaning. The fact that neither Johnson nor Webster includes the oldest meaning of full (“abundant”) indicates that it was no longer in use at the time or during their existence. And the evidence shows that in the 19th century full was established as a literary term primarily expressing opposition to excessive praise and flattery and humiliation — that is, exactly as Webster defined it.
But in the early 20th century, just in time to confuse us all, the word’s “rich” meaning began to be used again, no doubt due to its association with its etymological relative. full, an adjective that usually has a positive connotation. Unfortunately, this revival was ignored by lexicographers in the first decades of the century, so the meaning of “rich” continued to be labeled. obsolete until 1961. The result was full is now used with a positive or neutral meaning at least as often as with a negative connotation, but many consider the meaning “many” to be an error, even though it is the purest use of the word in terms of words. original.
The result of this muddled history is mixed meanings. In spite of full usually a positive word, full can carry a pejorative connotation in phrases such as “full of praise”, where this is often interpreted as “excessive, excessive, or insincere praise”. A phrase like “sincere apology” can be ambiguous: some people may think it means “a complete apology”, while others may think it means “an overblown, outrageous, or insincere apology”. Therefore, we advise you to use caution full: make sure your context is clear, otherwise you may have to issue a full apology.
Categories: Usage Notes
Source: vothisaucamau.edu.vn
