American Heritage Dictionary reflects on how words change meanings over time - Chron.com
,1995): relating to or being a system that caps the amount of carbon emissions a given company may produce but allows it to buy rights to produce additional emissions from a company that does not use the equivalent amount of its own allowance... freegan (n. , 2006): an activist who scavenges for free food (as in waste receptacles at stores and restaurants) as a means of reducing consumption of resources PHOTO: Ariel Rodriguez Bosio, 34, promoter of the "freegan" movement in Argentina,... For this entry they looked at words that have been changed by users in such a way that they take on a whole new meaning organically. “When enough people use the same word in the same new way, and when this use continues over a prolonged period of time, dictionary editors take notice,” American Heritage Dictionary writes. Bad used to mean not good, then meant something or someone was cool, and now were back to bad (possibly) meaning something negative again. Source: www.chron.com
