Evolving shades of meaning (was Re: LUNATIC again)

In a message dated 11/7/98 5:46:20 PM Eastern Standard Time, dgd@CS.BU.EDU
writes:

> >I think that when people first use a slang expression, the wordsdo have
> close
>  >association with a more standard equivalent, but then the metaphorical
>  >extensions start growing.  "Cool" does not mean what it did when I
>  >was a kid, when it
>  >could in most cases have been exactlyu replaced by a number of other words
>  >with no change ion meaning, in the typical slang usage.  If there were
>  >subtleties of meaning in the various slang words of approval, they were
> lost
>  >on me.
This is why, in my projects, i often write several synoyms for adjectives into
the language, then gradually in usage create a change in meaning.
eg. BEFORE:  gluun, tref, thush: new
AFTER: gluun: new
tref: innovative, never before seen.
thush: variant, a [new] member of a [new] subcategory
does anyone else do this?
pacs precs
joe Mondello