skye, German

is there a name in for that thing that happens sometimes when a meaning of a word shifts into something different, so a different word comes up to serve the original meaning that the old word shifted away from, but then the new word starts slowly going through that SAME shift?

does it ever stop?

syntaxforest,

@skye I've seen 'semantic treadmill' used for that.

skye,

@syntaxforest finally a response that actually answers my question, tyvm!

SleepyCatten,
rudyschwartz,

deleted_by_author

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  • skye,

    @rudyschwartz that does not seem to describe the aspect of repetition that i was asking about

    mensrea,
    @mensrea@freeradical.zone avatar

    @skye apparently: Semantic change (also semantic shift, semantic progression, semantic development, or semantic drift) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_change

    skye,

    @mensrea but that seems to describe only the shift itself, not the repetition aspect that i was asking about

    fonolog,
    @fonolog@mstdn.social avatar

    @skye @mensrea This is something that often happens to euphemisms, which after a while get the same negative connotation as the original word. As such, this is sometimes called 'the euphemism treadmill'. I am not aware that there is a name for the more general phenomenon.

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