One of the ways the English language wants to retain speakers is through the application of a large number of rules of arbitrary and capricious usage. We are comfortable with pronouns that do not need apostrophes in the possessive case (“his voice is more annoying hers”), unless they do (“his voice makes her think of the joy of having a room of a person possessive”). Many people get annoyed with certain adverbs that are used to modify entire sentences (“hope you’ll stop giving us language advice”), while feeling completely comfortable with other adverbs that work in a similar way (“sure you do not recommend using hope in an indiscriminate role?!?!”)
In a similar way, we have noticed that some people get angry when a word with a precise and specific meaning adds another. Except when they don’t. And, it turns out, we don’t seem to care that words change their meanings most of the time. For every semantic-drift-and-itch package like destroy most or caliber there are dozens of words like Astronomy.
Photo: the void ‘decimate’ stares at as it ponders its fate
Astronomy seems like a good candidate for a word that makes people uncomfortable. It came into being in the mid-16th century, and for a few hundred years its meaning was largely confined to “of or relating to astronomy” (and astronomy, for those too busy to click the hyperlinks, is “the study of objects and matter beyond the earth’s atmosphere and their physical and chemical properties”). Then, at the end of the 18th century, Astronomy decided to go and added another meaning: “great or great in a great or unimaginable way.”
The iron horse stops only to quench its thirst in our great valley before it soars over the Sierra Nevada, and dozes at night in its manger over the wide expanse of the Pacific Ocean. He completed the 3585 miles; more than twice the astronomical length of the Mississippi Valley.— The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), February 3, 1872
If one takes the trouble to count the number of prints in both the five and twenty volumes, he will find that the sum of the operations required amounts to a near-magnificent number.— The Pall Mall Gazette (London, England), April 8, 1881
Up until April 1, due to the Ruhr incident, Germany had increased its floating debt to a staggering five trillion marks.— Boston GlobeMay 14, 1923
Thus, immediately after the cessation of gunfire in 1918, making a claim to Germany with numbers of astronomical dimensions.— Questioner Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH), July 21, 1929
Figurative meaning of Astronomy quite rare until the 1930s, at which point it began to be used significantly more. And even though this is a new meaning added to an old one (Astronomy semantically unchanged in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries), and the new meaning is somewhat redundant (English already has many synonyms for the word “big”). There are a few usage guidelines that urge avoiding this new meaning of . Astronomyor suggested that it was reserved for describing large distances (as Wilson Follett did in 1966), but much of the new meaning was quickly accepted and considered Standard English.
We may hear that the English language is in decline, or that the precious meaning of a word is in danger of being lost forever due to the linguistic anomalies of young people/journalists/writers. sports/etc Or we may feel that we are constantly being corrected by self-appointed language defenders, scolders, who eagerly follow every small change in English. But neither of these is true; our language is not impaired (we all seem to understand each other now as we always do), and moreover, it is a very flexible and forgiving language that allows for transformations. astronomically significant.
Categories: Usage Notes
Source: vothisaucamau.edu.vn
