The phenomenon of "corrupted words" is a common occurrence in language evolution. It refers to words that have undergone changes in pronunciation, spelling, or meaning over time, often due to mishearing, misinterpretation, or the influence of other languages. The term "corrupted" can be a bit loaded, as it implies a decline from a "pure" form. However, linguists generally view these changes as natural and inevitable processes.
Here's a breakdown of how words get "corrupted" and some examples:
Processes of Word Corruption:
• Mishearing:
• Mondegreens: Misheard song lyrics are a classic example.
• Eggcorns: Substituting a word or phrase with a similar-sounding one, creating a new, but logical meaning (e.g., "old-timers' disease" instead of "Alzheimer's disease").
• Folk Etymology: Altering a word's form to make it sound more familiar or to connect it to a known word, even if the connection is historically inaccurate (e.g., "cockroach" is not related to "cock" or "roach").
• Blending: Combining parts of two words into a new word (e.g., "smog" from "smoke" and "fog").
• Clipping: Shortening a word (e.g., "exam" from "examination").
• Acronyms and Initialisms: Forming a word or abbreviation from the initial letters of a phrase
• Borrowing and Adaptation: Adopting words from other languages and altering them to fit the phonological or grammatical rules of the borrowing language (e.g., "karaoke" from Japanese).
• Semantic Shift: A word's meaning can gradually change over time through processes like:
• Broadening: The meaning becomes more general (e.g., "holiday" originally meant "holy day" but now refers to any day off).
• Narrowing: The meaning becomes more specific (e.g., "meat" originally meant any kind of food but now refers to animal flesh).
Examples of "Corrupted" Words:
(These examples are from English, as that's the language I'm most familiar with. The same processes occur in every language.)
• "Bridegroom": This word was originally "bridegome," where "gome" meant "man." Over time, "gome" was replaced with "groom," likely due to folk etymology associating it with "groom" in the sense of "taking care of horses."
• "Cockroach": As mentioned above, this word is not related to "cock" or "roach." It's a corruption of the Spanish word "cucaracha."
• "Hamburger": Originally referred to a patty of ground beef from Hamburg, Germany. Now it often just means a beef patty in a bun, even if it's not from Hamburg.
• "Goodbye": A contraction of "God be with ye" (an older form of "you").
• "Scuba": An acronym for "Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus."
• "Laser": An acronym for "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation."
• "OK": The origins of "OK" are debated, but one popular theory is that it originated as a deliberately misspelled abbreviation for "oll korrect" (all correct).
• "Posh": Often mistakenly believed to be an acronym for "Port Out, Starboard Home" (referring to the more desirable cabins on ships traveling between Britain and India). This is a folk etymology; the word's true origins are uncertain.
• "Asparagus": Altered from the original Latin "asparagus" through a process of apheresis (loss of a sound at the beginning of a word) and folk etymology ("sparrow grass").
Is "Corruption" Bad?
From a prescriptive grammar standpoint (which dictates how language should be used), these changes might be seen as errors. However, from a descriptive linguistics standpoint (which observes