Semantic change

Semantic change is the development of a word’s meaning over time, including shifts in scope, associations, and figurative use.

Semantic broadening: A change in which a word comes to apply to a wider range of meanings or referents. It expands a word’s range beyond its earlier uses.
Lexical semantics: The study of word meaning and the relationships among meanings in a language. Semantic change concerns the historical development of the meanings it studies.
Nice: An English adjective whose meaning shifted from foolish or ignorant to pleasant or agreeable. Its history illustrates a substantial change in evaluative meaning.
Historical linguistics: The study of how languages change and how languages are related over time. Semantic change is one dimension of historical language change.
Amelioration: A change in which a word acquires a more positive evaluative meaning. It provides the positive counterpart to pejoration.
Semantic narrowing: A change in which a word comes to apply to a more restricted range of meanings or referents. It shows how a word’s former range can contract.
Polysemy: The coexistence of multiple related meanings for a single word. New senses often accumulate alongside older ones rather than replacing them.
Silly: An English adjective that developed from meanings associated with blessedness and innocence to foolishness. Its successive meanings show how evaluation can change across centuries.
Grammaticalization: The process by which words develop grammatical functions, often becoming more function-like over time. It can involve shifts in lexical meaning as words take on grammatical roles.
Euphemism treadmill: The cycle in which euphemistic expressions acquire negative associations and are replaced by new euphemisms. It shows how social evaluation can repeatedly alter words’ meanings.

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