A history of the English Language

222.
Old Words with
 
New
 
Meanings.
The resources of the vocabulary are sometimes extended from within by employment of 
an old word in a new sense. We have already seen many examples of this in some of the 
paragraphs preceding, especially many of the words now applied to the automobile and 
the computer. But the process can be widely illustrated, for it is one of the commonest 
phenomena in language. 
Skyline
formerly meant the horizon, but it is now more common 
in such an expression as the New York 
skyline
. 
Broadcast
originally had reference to 
seed, but its application to radio seems entirely appropriate. A 
record
may be many other 
things than a phonograph disc, and 
radiator
was used for anything that radiated heat or 
light before it was applied specifically to steam heat or the automobile. 
Cabaret
is an old 
word meaning a booth or shed, and later a small drinking place. Today it signifies a 
certain type of nightclub. We 
sign off 
or
 stand by
in broadcasting, 
take off 
in an airplane, 
kick off 
in football, 
call up
on the telephone, and in each of these cases we convey a 
specific, often technical meaning, quite different from the sense that these expressions 
previously had. 
A certain amount of experimenting with words is constantly going on, and at times the 
new use of a word may meet with opposition. Many people still object to the use of 
contact
as a verb, and 
impact
has drawn similar criticism (as in “The needs of industry 
have impacted the university’s graduate program”). The shift in transitivity of verbs often 
meets with resistance: 
transform
as intransitive (“He transformed into a hero”) or 
commit
as intransitive (“The player wouldn’t commit to the team”). It is well to remember that 
Swift objected to 
behave
without the reflexive pronoun. Time will decide the fate of these 
words, but whether or not the new uses establish themselves in the language, they must 
be considered as exemplifying a well-recognized phenomenon in the behavior of words.