The Language Puzzle Quotes

“The meanings of words are constantly changing and multiplying— a process termed by linguists as semantic change. We have a hint of this from our own lifetimes: is a wicked mouse an evil rodent or an excellent hand-held input device for a computer? The word table once only referred to a piece of furniture with a flat top, but has not only become a verb, but one with two opposing meanings. In the UK, 'to table' means the process of presenting a proposal, while in the US, 'to table' means postponing the consideration of a proposal. We can, however, only appreciate the scale and significance of word change when comparing historical sequences of written texts of the same language.”
― Steven Mithen, The Language Puzzle: Piecing Together the Six-Million-Year Story of How Words Evolved