It’s an immutable fact, whether we like it or not, that we change as we grow older, whether for better or worse. We might become less flexible but wiser, our cooking might improve but our memory doesn’t. Our crossword-solving skills advance, of course – but sadly it gets harder to read the clues.

So it is with words. As English evolves, word meanings shift and turn, sometimes meaning the very opposite of what they once meant.

The first meaning of decimate in the Oxford English Dictionary is ‘kill, destroy or remove a large proportion of’ or ‘drastically reduce the strength or effectiveness of (something)’.

Decimate comes from the Latin for ‘ten’ decem and meant ‘to kill one in ten’. Decimation was a form of military discipline used by officers in the Roman Army to punish mutinous soldiers. One soldier out of every ten was selected and killed, to punish the rest.

This is now the second meaning in the OED but it used to be the first. This is how language goes.

The earliest use of the word fulsome, in the 13th C, was ‘abundant’ as in ‘fulsome praise’ but it gradually acquired a negative connotation of ‘excessive, effusive’ and ’fulsome praise’ would then have meant excessive or insincere praise. However, just to be confusing, the original ‘abundant’ meaning has returned, so here is a word that has opposite meanings. It may be used in a complimentary sense, or an insulting one. This quote: ‘The Foreign Affairs Minister is demanding a “fulsome apology” from the former Labour leader…’ seems to imply that the writer had the ‘abundant’ meaning in mind.

Plethora refers to an excess of something, and neither the Collins nor Oxford dictionaries include the meaning of ‘abundance’ but that is how the word is perceived nowadays. I once read an ad for a resort which said: ‘The staff at the entertainment desk will provide a plethora of fun activities’ and I’m sure they didn’t mean they had too many activities. Or a comment about a radio station, ‘I love to listen to the plethora of Christmas tunes…’, or a movie review, ‘…he has been earning a plethora of advanced raves for his performance…’.

So be careful – it’s a lexical minefield out there!

Happy Puzzling!