Mr. Hatandcoat Fears Lexical Change

Or, rather, my mostly-absent co-blogger is annoyed by it.

Just ask him about the word "ignorant." For years, he's been very bothered by the use of "ignorant" to mean belligerent. You know:

A: "Did I tell you what Marvin did?"
B: "No, what'd he do?"
A: "After I told him to be careful about taking long smoke breaks, he rolled his eyes, said 'whatever', and slammed my office door so hard my picture of Princess came off the wall. He is so ignorant."

This sets H&C into a prescriptivist fury. He has asked a woman who he frequently heard misuse "ignorant" what she thought it meant. She said, "I don't know, belligerent?" He looked it up on m-w.com and proved her wrong.

Luckily for H&C, the word "ignorant" has not changed its meaning (until now) from the time it was incorporated into English. Unfortunately for H&C, he's been spelling it wrong his whole life. "Ignorant" was originally spelled ignoraunt and probably sounded a lot more French.

The trouble with being prescriptive about language is that language has no standard. Language is not static. The rules change, meanings warp, fade, or are completely opposite of what they used to mean.

The word "nice," for example, entered English meaning "foolish, stupid." Here's a list of its transformations through the ages (taken from etymonline.com):

1. foolish, stupid, senseless (1290)
   
2. timid (before 1300)
3. fussy, fastidious (1380)
4. dainty, delicate (1405)
5. precise, careful (1500s)
6. agreeable, delightful (1769)
7. kind, thoughtful (1830)
   

(If you want to go back before English, "nice" came from Old French where it meant "silly, foolish." It came from Latin nescius, which meant ignorant.)

Whether or not there is a standard, I suppose you could argue either way. It's clear that language is always changing, though. Since it's always changing, how can there be a standard?

The main point of this post is to tell H&C that another of his annoyances is now in the dictionary. H&C told me last night that he hates it when people say "people of the female persuasion." He says that "persuasion" there makes no sense. Unfortunately...

1. The act of persuading or the state of being persuaded: “The persuasion of a democracy to big changes is at best a slow process” (Harold J. Laski).
2. The ability or power to persuade: “Three foremost aids to persuasion which occur to me are humility, concentration, and gusto” (Marianne Moore).
3. A strongly held opinion; a conviction. See synonyms at opinion.
4. 1. A body of religious beliefs; a religion: worshipers of various persuasions.
   2. A party, faction, or group holding to a particular set of ideas or beliefs.
5. Informal. Kind; sort: “the place where … rockers of any gender or persuasion can become megastars” (Christopher John Farley). (answers.com def)