“Meat Literally gives me Heartburn”. The following sentence nowadays simply invokes the acidic effect of meat on my stomach. However, this sentence wouldn’t have been understood the same way hundreds of years ago.
I will be describing hereby the semantic change of the words; Meat, Literally and Heartburn.
Let’s start with “Meat”. If you look up the word in a modern online dictionary, the simple definition of it would be “the flesh of an animal used as food “- “the part of something that can be eaten “as displayed in Merriam-Webster.
If we go and look the same word up in the OED, we get more than 13 distinct definitions for it, varying through time. Here are some highlights;
The eldest entry defines meat as any comestible thing that’s not drink. That connotation mostly resided in old English; the word was generally related to food.
Later on, it was considered as one kind of food, or dish, to be generalized further around year 1150 to the “meal”.
A lot of later posts relate to it as animal flesh, what can be eaten etc.
The interesting turning point is when the word “Meat” in Slang Language meant Feminine Genitals, a Prostitute and other times, the Penis.
Then again, it meant flesh-related words, but this time a human’s flesh, or even a dead or dying human.
Another interesting fact would fall in the 20th century, when many entries used the word in a sentence as follows; “to be a person’s meat: to be the right or appropriate individual to carry out or assist in a person’s plan, enterprise, etc.” (oed.com).
Regarding the term “literally”, Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as: “in a literal sense or manner” or “in effect”.
Switching to the OED, the word appears to first be employed in the 1400s. The dictionary first categorizes is under the “literal sense or manner” (oed.com) definition, as found in Merriam-Webster.
The second category under which it is defined, isn’t entitled, we find under it though, two subcategories; the first being in a sense of; word by word, the second; faithfully or with extended fidelity.
The last definition is the most obvious, and I was surprised that we never thought of understanding it this way nowadays; “By or with regards to letters” (oed.com).
Finally, Merriam-Webster online Dictionary explains the word “Heartburn” as such; “a burning discomfort behind the lower part of the sternum due especially to spasmodic reflux of acid from the stomach into the esophagus.” I have also asked around how friends and family understood it (I don’t speak English that often), in order to make sure that this is how people described its meaning, and they agreed.
The OED displays three main interpretations;
Firstly, as appeared in 1325, heartburn is a burning passion, lust. Then, on what seems to be covered by various centuries, the word appeared with the same meaning we have today in modern dictionaries. Finally, also on a wide range of history (1579-2005), heartburn originally meant jealousy or disappointment, and subsequently worry and anxiety.
Through this exercise, one would notice how words seem to be multifaceted; more specifically, how they can play the role of incredible tools for historians. If it weren’t for dictionaries, the sentence I mentioned above would mean the same thing unconditionally. However, having access to the different meanings of each word, we could explain my sentence by:
“Prostitution faithfully gives me anxiety”.
Ice Burger 