Lost Word Of The Day (64)

I am always fascinated how words over time develop meanings which are the polar opposite of their original sense. Take the Scottish dialect word from the 18th century, snool.

As a noun it meant a servile toady who submits tamely, a yes man, an obsequious or sly person, a cringing person, a coward. However, another definition which developed later was a mean, wretched person or a bully leading to it to convey the sense, in verb form, of reducing someone to submission or to bully or lambast harshly. Nevertheless, to snool also retained its original sense of cringing and cowering.

Context was essential, I guess.