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And TIL many people don't realize how common lexical change is, or how completely it can alter a meaning.
Consider, for example, what the word "gay" meant 100 years ago, vs what it means now. If you read Victorian lit with the modern meaning, you will be very, very confused.
Consider, for example, what the word "gay" meant 100 years ago, vs what it means now. If you read Victorian lit with the modern meaning, you will be very, very confused.
On the other hand, you can read Victorian arguments about a free press and make sense of them, even though their press technology was much more primitive than the modern stuff.
This is why it is relevant that the word "regulate", as used in the second amendment, has changed dramatically in 240 years--the regulatory state was about 150 years away. And much less relevant that rifles are now more common than they were in 1789.
The Founding Fathers would have easily recognized modern weapons as "arms". But they would have been confused by the changed meanings of the word "regulate"--taking on some meanings it didn't really have in 1789, losing others that were common.
That's not to say that the word has completely changed meanings--it hasn't--but that it is substantially different from what it was in 1789.
