220809 Words, Good and Bad

I love the American use of the English language.

We have many words that originated with one meaning, but now have a far different meaning in our colloquial speech.
For instance, the word Poke. The definition is, to push something thin or sharp into or through an object. But there are other meanings old and new. A poke was once a sack one held his money or clothing in. Now it is used on Facebook as a way of saying hello or to get one’s attention to something. A slow poke refers to someone moving slowly.

Pike, the definition of a pike, is a long bodied fish with a pointed snout. At one time in the eastern US, there was a toll road built by individuals who paved a road and then charged a fee to travel the road instead of bumpy dirt roads in the area. That was called a pike. A piker is now someone who is a tightwad, a cheapskate. A pike is also used to denote the highest point on a mountain top.

Pig, a pig is an omnivorous domestic animal with a blunt snout. Of course we Americans have other meanings for the word, a derogatory name for a law enforcement officer (not one I would use) also another derogatory word for an overweight person, (another use I do not like to hear). A pig is also a dirty or unpleasant person to be around.

A dog is a domesticated animal with a long snout and an acute sense of smell. Of course there are now other meanings. A dog can mean someone who chases after celebrities to take pictures. Another meaning is a man who spends his life chasing skirts expecting to use a woman as another conquest. Another is one I know well, a navy term used as in “dog down the hatches.” A watertight door on a naval ship has several levers to tighten down a hatch in passageways for damage control purposes. a bomb or a torpedo can cause explosions, fires and flooding in a compartment on a ship. Those things are contained in one area by dogging down the hatches.