1011: Semantic Bleaching Sep 15, 2017

Semantic bleaching, also known as semantic reduction or semantic loss, is the name for the loss of certain meaning of a word totally, such that it becomes unspecific or merely intensifying etc. This happens in words like 'awful' or 'terrific' which no longer retain at least one of their original meanings. There is no way to predict when or how this will happen, but in those two cases this process occurred because people exaggerated the initial senses of those words, and then the hyperbolic use became more generic. This happens too when people use curses emphatically, such as 'crap' or 'shit' in the invented example "I bought a new house but now I have to move all of my crap/shit". This also happens in phrases like 'have got' in 'have got (to)' or arguably 'how' in 'how are you' which do not carry much if any meaning when considered in isolation. This is not the same, however, as semantic change, as happened to words like 'nice' which describes when a word changes meanings, possibly losing the initial sense, but still has a specific definition.