Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are ...



Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text. (CCSS: RSIT #4)

Etymology is the study of the origins of words.

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As languages develop the meaning of words can change over time. This causes confusion and misunderstanding when communicating with other people. An example would be the word nice. Nice used to be an insult and meant foolish or stupid in the 13th century and it went through many changes right through to the 18th century with meanings like wanton, extravagant, elegant, strange, modest, thin, and shy or coy. Now it means a good and pleasing or thoughtful and kind. Silly meant blessed or happy in the 11th century and went through pious, innocent, harmless, pitiable and feeble minded before ending up as foolish or stupid. Pretty started as crafty this changed to clever or skillfully made, then to fine and ended up as beautiful.

Some additional examples include:

|Word |Original Meaning |Current Meaning |

|Awful |Deserving of awe | |

| | | |

|Bead |Prayer | |

| | | |

|Brave |Cowardice | |

| | | |

|Girl |Young person of either sex | |

| | | |

|Neck |Piece of land (e.g., neck of the woods) | |

| | | |

There are several reasons for words change meaning. One is the influence of other languages and cultures. Throughout history, many nations through conquering or intermixing with one another, introduced their own languages into the mix. Another reason is the predominate use of slang words. We get so used to using them that many times we forget that we even are.

Thoreau’s “On Civil Disobedience” and How He Defines the Title’s Key Term

The phrase “Civil Disobedience” is a popular and well-used phrase in political and philosophical circles from around the world. While Thoreau did not coin the phrase, his original usage of it in 1849 set the stage of its popularity. Since then, luminaries from the around the world – ranging from Mohandas Gandhi to Martin Luther King have used the term or a variation of it. However, while those aforementioned leaders have used the term “Civil Disobedience” roughly within the same context as Henry David Thoreau, others have not. In his 1969 article from The Massachusetts Review, Marshall Cohen writes how U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew claimed it was a description of “muggers, arsonists, draft evaders, campaign hecklers, campus militants, anti-war demonstrators, juvenile delinquents and political assassins.” Indeed, J.L. LeGrande (1967) in writing for The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminal Law, and Police Science cited that many writers defined Thoreau’s well-known term as actions related to “disrespect for law and order.”

Below are a few key, but brief, excerpts taken from Henry David Thoreau’s famous essay “On Civil Disobedience.” Reread these key excerpts; then, using what you have read, write on a separate piece of paper Thoreau’s vision of civil disobedience. What do YOU think Thoreau is saying? Think about the following as you answer the question: Are his ideas similar to Agnew’s or those reported by LeGrande? Or are they markedly different?

I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe -- "That government is best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.

But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at one no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.

Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison. . . . It is there that the fugitive slave, and the Mexican prisoner on parole, and the Indian come to plead the wrongs of his race should find them; on that separate but more free and honorable ground, where the State places those who are not with her, but against her. . . . Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight. If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate which to choose. If a thousand men were not to pay their tax bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.

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