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The word has both positive and negative meanings, so context is key. Fulsome is a troublesome word. And it's also a word that represents the rare case in which dictionaries have made the word’s meaning more confusing rather than more clear. Fulsome seems like an emphatic way of saying “full” or “complete,” and indeed in its oldest use ...
Depends on whom you ask. The word started out in mid 13th century as a straightforward, unambiguous word to describe abundance. By the 17th century, it had acquired a deprecatory sense, as in the second sense listed above. Then, again, it went around the bend and in the 20th century the positive sense of the word became more common.
The earliest known use of the word fulsome is in the Middle English period (1150—1500). OED's earliest evidence for fulsome is from before 1325, in Genesis & Exodus. fulsome is formed within English, by derivation. Etymons: full adj., ‑some suffix1.
Although fulsome's original meaning from the 13th to the 16th century was full and abundant, the negative sense had overtaken the word by the 17th century. To say today that a speech is fulsome or ...
The adjective fulsome can be defined as "unpleasantly and excessively suave or ingratiating in manner or speech." Historically, it has also meant "disgusting or offensive," or "copious or abundant." Fulsome dates to the 1200s, when its components (ful + som) gave it the meaning "abundant, full," says the Online Etymology Dictionary.
Dec 4, 2018 · Anyone who reads thoughtfully knows that words often change their meaning with time and context. Christians are a “peculiar people,” the KJV tells us, only “peculiar” did not mean in 1611 what it means today. Sometimes an older meaning of a word continues in a restricted sector of the culture, even though most people use it in quite a ...
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Dec 11, 1977 · A Fulsome History. December 10, 1977 at 7:00 p.m. EST. ONE OF THE BEST indications of the way language changes is the word fulsome , which has for years meant "offensive to good taste, especially ...
