The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.
Terry Pratchett
Words have always been changing their meanings, at least live words, but these last decades seem to have been the most snakish of them all. What with the ubiquitous PC and such... Worse, it kills words, making folks more and more tongue-tied. Just wondering: how long till we are all artificially mute?