Changing connotations --- Agreed, Christian, meaning does indeed change over time and one of the first changes involves connotations.

Further examples include 'rebel' which used to be associated with fringe and doomed-to-fail protestors but which during the Arab Spring came to acquire much more positive connotations.

Under Greta Thunberg the connotations of 'activist' has similarly shifted towards something commendable and admirable.

Source author: Biljana Scott biscott@diplomacy.edu