What are some words, phrases, and/or aphorisms that, over time, have drastically changed in meaning?

“Get your goat” now means to upset someone. Years ago, when people had horses, you couldn’t have just one, so you might get a goat to keep the horse company. And this was especially true with race horses. So if someone wanted to upset your horse before the race, they’d steal your goat.

“Woke” used to mean “being aware of the countless injustices in society”.
It has been perverted by the far right to mean “gay people/minorities/women existing in popular media is bad”.

I literally can’t think of one.

I’m in the US, so my answers are regarding how terms and phrases are used in the US.

Semitic. In the US antisemitic means anti-Jewish, but Semitic technically means both Arab and Jewish, but my guess is most people in the US today wouldn’t even know that. I rarely hear the term semitic used at all for that matter.

Gay. Used to mean happy and carefree, and now means homosexual. I’m so pretty and witty and gay…

Fantastic. Used to mean existing in a persons mind like fantasy. Now, it means something incredible or stupendous.

Rubbers. Used to mean a cover for shoes. We used them in the rain. Now, we use that term for condoms. My family just calls those covers Totes. An Iranian friend of mine in school had a mortifying story about being new in the US in 7th grade and asking the class for a rubber. Her family had first lived in England when they fled Iran, and in England an eraser was called a rubber. I don’t know if it still is.

sick, bad

@canidmajor “Another example is ‘Blood is thicker than water’ which is generally understood to mean that allegiance is owed to blood relatives above other people, but in fact, derives from the saying ‘The blood of the covenant is thicker that the water of the womb’.”

For the record, this is a myth. The oldest version of the phrase comes from a 12th century German epic poem: “das sippe blůt von wazzere niht verdirbet” (“kin-blood is not spoiled by water,” the point being that the ties of blood remain even when diluted). The oldest English version comes from the 14th century: “For naturelly blod wil ay of kynde / Draw unto blod, wher he may it fynde” (cf. “birds of a feather flock together”). “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb,” on the other hand, only goes back to 1994.

“Naughty” once had much stronger connotations of evil. Later the word became much softer and began to mean mischievous or badly behaved especially as regards children.

“How far that little candle throws its beam, so shines a good deed in a naughty world.”. Naughty always seemed the wrong word in the context but it had a different meaning in Shakespeare’s day.

“Gay” used to be happy. The Flintstones had a gay old time. Don your gay apparel.

Bad apples. The phrase used to mean that single bad actors would spoil a group, like a bad apple does to a bunch of apples. It somehow became an argument against the need for institutional reform. “We’re just talking about a few bad apples here, people. No need to throw the baby out with the bath water”

@SavoirFaire I stand corrected. I could have sworn that we discussed that in school (in the 60s) and thought it was cool so a group of us became “blood sisters” (we didn’t like the ones our parents gave us). I probably mis-remembered, I bow to your superior research skills.

Now I am curious, I’ll have to contact the blood sisterhood and see what they remember about why we did that. ;-)