semantic narrowing

The process by which a word's meaning becomes less general or inclusive than its earlier meaning. Contrast with broadening.

See also:

• Historical Linguistics
• Introduction to Etymology
• Key Dates in the History of the English Language
• Language Change
• Semantic Change
• Semantics

Examples and Observations:

• "Narrowing of meaning. This happens when a word with a general meaning is by degrees applied to something much more specific. The word litter, for example, meant originally (before 1300) 'a bed,' then gradually narrowed down to 'bedding,' then to 'animals on a bedding of straw,' and finally to things scattered about, odds and ends. . . . Other examples of specialization are deer, which originally had the general meaning 'animal,' girl, which meant originally 'a young person,' and meat, whose original meaning was 'food.'"
  (Sol Steinmetz, Semantic Antics: How and Why Words Change Meanings. Random House, 2008)



• "We say that narrowing takes place when a word comes to refer to only part of the original meaning. The history of the word hound in English neatly illustrates this process. The word was originally pronounced hund in English, and it was the generic word for any kind of dog at all. This original meaning is retained, for example, in German, where the word Hund simply means 'dog.' Over the centuries, however, the meaning of hund in English has become restricted to just those dogs used to chase game in the hunt, such as beagles. . . .
  
  "Words may come to be associated with particular contexts, which is another type of narrowing. One example of this is the word indigenous, which when applied to people means especially the inhabitants of a country which has been colonized, not 'original inhabitants' more generally."
  (Terry Crowley and Claire Bowern, An Introduction to Historical Linguistics, 4th ed. Oxford Univ. Press, 2010)



• "Engine was formerly used in a general sense of 'mechanical contrivance' (especially of war and torture), but since the Industrial Revolution it has come to mean 'mechanical sense of power.'"
  (David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003)



• "In Old English, mete referred to food in general (a sense which is retained in sweetmeat); today, it refers to only one kind of food (meat). Art originally had some very general meanings, mostly connected to 'skill'; today, it refers just to certain kinds of skill, chiefly in relation to aesthetic skill--'the arts.'"
  (David Crystal, How Language Works. Overlook, 2006)



• "Accident means an unintended injurious or disastrous event. Its original meaning was just any event, especially one that was unforeseen. . . . Fowl in Old English referred to any bird. Subsequently, the meaning of this word was narrowed to a bird raised for food, or a wild bird hunted for 'sport.'"
  (Francis Katamba, English Words: Structure, History, Usage. Routledge, 2004)