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As a non native speaker, my biggest gripe is that words which meanth the same thing have diverged. For example, "egregiously" meant "very well" and "egregiamen

As a non native speaker, my biggest gripe is that words which meanth the same thing have diverged. For example, "egregiously" meant "very well" and "egregiamente" still does in Italian. But in English, it now means "very badly". At the same time, people who spend a lot of time using English end up reimporting words with the same root into my own language when we already have something (e.g. the word spelled "decade" in Italian means "ten things" while the semantically equivalent "ten years" is "decennio", but some people will now commonly use the former to mean the latter because they just mock English)

jacques_chester 7y ago
Latin words mostly came to English through Norman French after William the Conqueror and his followers became ruling class in 1066. In the intervening thousand years there was a lot of time for the meanings to diverge and invert. English is particularly rich in false friends and loanwords because of its hybrid origins. Only recently has it begun to export words back out to other languages (eg. "le weekend").
- empath75 7y ago
  Actually quite a lot of the Latin and Greek words came several centuries after the Norman invasion as renaissance scholars introduced them — often to ‘correct’ French words. Then quite a lot more came through scientific terms in the industrial era.
  - jacques_chester 7y ago
    Yes, I should've mentioned them rather than sweeping it all under loanwords.
hodgesrm 7y ago
"Egregiously" is interesting. Your definition matches my OED. But "egregious" also has the original meaning from Latin "egregius" which is literally something that stands out from a flock (for example of sheep), hence remarkably good. "University" is another confusing derivation. It's common to ascribe it to classical Latin "universitas" which means "universe" and implies a university teaches all things. Actually though the OED, the Cambridge Medieval History, and Wikipedia agree that when first applied in the middle ages "universitas" had the meaning of society or guild and applied to the faculty plus students of institutions like Bologna or Padua. [1] At the risk of flogging a dead horse it's all egregiously confusing. I think I got that right. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University
pacaro 7y ago
Even better, some words have directly contradictory meanings in different dialects of English. In the context of a meeting, to table something means to not discuss it at this meeting, or it means to ensure that it is on the agenda and is discussed at this meeting, all depending on whether you are influenced by American or Commonwealth English

jacques_chester 7y ago

Latin words mostly came to English through Norman French after William the Conqueror and his followers became ruling class in 1066. In the intervening thousand years there was a lot of time for the meanings to diverge and invert. English is particularly rich in false friends and loanwords because of its hybrid origins. Only recently has it begun to export words back out to other languages (eg. "le weekend").

empath75 7y ago
Actually quite a lot of the Latin and Greek words came several centuries after the Norman invasion as renaissance scholars introduced them — often to ‘correct’ French words. Then quite a lot more came through scientific terms in the industrial era.
- jacques_chester 7y ago
  Yes, I should've mentioned them rather than sweeping it all under loanwords.

hodgesrm 7y ago

"Egregiously" is interesting. Your definition matches my OED. But "egregious" also has the original meaning from Latin "egregius" which is literally something that stands out from a flock (for example of sheep), hence remarkably good. "University" is another confusing derivation. It's common to ascribe it to classical Latin "universitas" which means "universe" and implies a university teaches all things. Actually though the OED, the Cambridge Medieval History, and Wikipedia agree that when first applied in the middle ages "universitas" had the meaning of society or guild and applied to the faculty plus students of institutions like Bologna or Padua. [1] At the risk of flogging a dead horse it's all egregiously confusing. I think I got that right. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University

pacaro 7y ago

Even better, some words have directly contradictory meanings in different dialects of English. In the context of a meeting, to table something means to not discuss it at this meeting, or it means to ensure that it is on the agenda and is discussed at this meeting, all depending on whether you are influenced by American or Commonwealth English