Re: Why does the meaning (and spelling) of words change?

Gary Shannon wrote:

>
><snip>
>
>I once heard the story (somebody tell me if this is
>true or not.  I suspect it's BS) that about a thousand
>years ago in Great Britain, the French language and
>culture was much admired and to speak french was
>considered the mark of good breeding.  Those who
>didn't speak French, however, not wanted to be thought
>too backward, adopted French-like spellings of English
>words to give their writing an air of culture.  Thus
>words like "colour", "cheque", and "programme".  These
>spellings, so the story goes, were a kind of
>poor-man's toy French.
>
>
>
The story is true as far as it goes.  However, the words themselves come
from French, and, as such, it was not an attempt to Frenchify English
words, but simply a lack of Anglicizing French words.  Also, it wasn't
that we admired the French, simply that, erm, they invaded us, and
imposed their language on us, meaning that the 'upper class'  words
tended to come from French.

As to the rest - Programme is simply not equivalent to 'towne' or
'publique'.  The former is archaic, the latter is French.  'programme'
is in normal, commonwealth English usage.  'Computer programme' is as
wrong as 'floppy disc'.    And 'color' makes even less sense than
'colour'(though I think the perfect spelling would be 'culler', though
that may be mistaked for someone who culls.) ;-)

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