How can a word that clearly means 'of a name' come to mean 'insignificantly small, trifling' and thus wind up becoming an advertising tool with a completely unrelated meaning?
Asked
Active
Viewed 218 times
1
-
4The principal sense nowadays, according to ODO, is 1(Of a role or status) existing in name only. ie negligible.This is almost certainly the bridging sense. – Edwin Ashworth Jul 20 '16 at 19:08
3 Answers
2
'Nominal' has long meant 'in name only' - for example:
The monarch is the nominal head of the British government.
One way this was applied was in the sense of 'a nominal payment', which means a payment that is not really a payment. A particular use is a payment that has to exist to make something legal - for example a person wishing to volunteer their time with a company might receive a 'nominal' salary (i.e. it's a salary in name only, too small to be an actual useful amount) that makes them legally an employee of the company, and thus covered by insurance etc.
These payments are typically very small, and thus the word acquires the 'insignificant' meaning by association.
See Peppercorn and Consideration
DJClayworth
- 25,795
0
The shift in meaning happened in the 17th century, probably underling the nominal aspect vs the real substance of something:
- Meaning "being so in name only" first recorded 1620s.
(Etymonline)
0
“So-called” is used analogously and is probably more familiar than “nominal.” Both are at core about what something is called, and both can be used (because they focus on name or others’ description rather than underlying reality) to imply that reality differs.
This gives rise to a standalone sense of “so-called” that although something is called an X it is not truly an X. For example: “The mattress is for sale at 40% off its so-called price, as it always has been and always will be.” (The price is not truly the price.) Or: “As the king aged, his so-called advisor began to run the country without the king’s involvement.” (The advisor is not truly an advisor.)
Similarly, this gives rise to a standalone sense of “nominal” that although something is called an X it is an insignificantly small X. For example: “For wiring $10.4 million to Switzerland, the bank charged a nominal fee of $14.95.” (The fee is negligible.) Or: “The contract specified exactly 33 tons of basalt, but the buyer indicated that he would accept any nominal variation in quantity and pay at the contracted price per ton.” (The variation must be relatively small.)
Hopefully this makes the connection among being called an X and being merely called an X and being an insignificantly small X more intuitive.
