another word whose meaning is changing

December 4, 2011

I first noticed the shift in 2004 and thought it was just an individual quirk in one person. But at least in American English, the change seems to be well underway:

“He was all stoked about it,” Zach Kern said of his father’s feelings about the opportunity to work on the cattle farm. “My brother … thought the whole situation was sketchy.”

“Sketchy” always meant “lacking in detail.” It seems to have become confused with “shady,” and now the confusion has stuck. So it goes.

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