Obviously this is an issue of much longer standing than previously thought
And so at TV Night there was a moment when Captain Jack became confused by late 20th century/early 21st century slang - "Wait, bad means good, right?" This is, of course, a terribly old joke, as sources as diverse as Laugh-In and the first cohort of Sesame Street will attest.
Older than we knew.
The word "good" comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *ghedh-, which literally means "to bring together." In other words, "good" means "fitting" - literally and figuratively.
The PEI root that actually means what we mean by "good" is - ya ready for it? - *bhad-.
Yeah, I'm not amused, either, especially since the distinction between bh- and b- was already lost by the time we got to Germanic. Anyway, if you ever wondered why the comparative forms for "good" didn't look anything like it, it's because they're descendants of that second root, "better" in particular coming directly from it (and "best" being an intensification of a Germanic word descended from it.).
Older than we knew.
The word "good" comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *ghedh-, which literally means "to bring together." In other words, "good" means "fitting" - literally and figuratively.
The PEI root that actually means what we mean by "good" is - ya ready for it? - *bhad-.
Yeah, I'm not amused, either, especially since the distinction between bh- and b- was already lost by the time we got to Germanic. Anyway, if you ever wondered why the comparative forms for "good" didn't look anything like it, it's because they're descendants of that second root, "better" in particular coming directly from it (and "best" being an intensification of a Germanic word descended from it.).