How do languages end up with so many words for the same thing?

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Why did we not stop at “big” and instead we now have “huge”, “massive”, “giagantic”, “large”, “enormous” etc?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Languages are always evolving. New words get coined. Old words shift meaning. Words phase in and out of common usage.

Quite a lot of words in English come from Norman French. People who spoke it became the ruling class of England.

The Anglo-Saxons had the words “smell” for all kinds of smells, and “stink” for the bad ones. But when the ruling class introduced the word “odor” it gained a positive meaning, because they talked about perfume and nicely cooked food more than the average person. That is why “smelly” and “stinky” now share a meaning.

I’d argue that all those size related words you listed have slightly different meanings. A large piece of paper is easy to find, but an enormous one is a lot bigger.

Having words that have the same meaning but different uses is quite good. For example if I would say “It’s a five minute walk/ride/drive to the pub.” You already have some idea of what mode of transport I am talking about.

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