"You taught me language, and the profit on it is I learned to curse." (The Tempest)

.....On Saturday, August 25 there were two comments to the posting regarding the use of the word, "disinterested" and for those readers who do any writing such as letters or emails or creative writing for that matter, may find some interest in those comments which engage in language usage. So this post today will be vastly different from any I've written before. It's about English--the English language which none other in the world can match for it's use in writing--and speaking. Suppose a friend said to you, "I know you're disinterested, so I want to ask you a question presently." Then he didn't say anything. Would you be momentarily nonplussed?

.....Quite likely, yes. According to Ben Yagoda, in a Slate magazine article, the above paragraph contains four words whose primary definitions have changed or are currently changing. Disinterested traditionally meant "impartial," and now is generally used to mean "uninterested." Presently has gone from "shortly" to "currently"; momentarily from "for a moment" to "in a moment"; and nonplussed from perplexed to unimpressed.  Now, I cannot vouch for the meanings attached to these words in Great Britain, but our British walking thesaurus, Ruthie Griffin, would have the answers.  

.....The point of all this is that language over time and distance changes.  For example, the English of "Beowulf" would not be understandable to most 21st Century readers.  But in spite of all the crying of students about the difficulty of reading the English in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" or in Shakespeare, patience is a virtue.  For example the prologue to the "Tales" begins "Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote, the droght of March has perced to the roote..."; with a little patience one can translate this to "When April with its sweet showers has pierced the drought of March to the limit..." With a little patience and determination to enrich your life, one can read the whole prologue and tales whose English is a symphony. The same can be said of Shakespeare, the Einstein of poetry and drama. E=mc2 is at the same time poetry and mystery. While Einstein's work is mainly best understood as science, Shakespeare is the genius of the English language, and with a little patience one can surely understand the language in his plays and enjoy it.  If not, see me.