Words! Words! Words!

At one point in “Alice in Wonderland,” Humpty Dumpty says to Alice, “When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean-neither more nor less.” Most of us feel that we have firm control over the meanings of the words we use. We take pride in saying exactly what we want to say and meaning what we want to mean. But we don’t have to examine the English language very closely to learn that words can have a life of their own and that often we say either more or less than we mean. (In Australia, a helicopter is a “flying palm tree.” In Ireland, “to have a long finger” is “to be slow in getting things done.” In parts of England “Jiggery pokery” means “nonsense.”)

Even our own household words seem to have a life of their own. Six-hundred years ago “to starve” meant simply “to die.” But in a period when death by starvation was common, the word…