The word orange entered English as the fruit’s name first. Only later did English speakers start using it as a color term.

“Scapegoat” began in an ancient ritual involving symbolic guilt. Today, it means a person unfairly blamed for others’ mistakes.

Noon did not always mean 12 p.m. It came from Latin for the ninth hour, once counted as about 3 p.m., before shifting to midday.

“The bitter end” started as a nautical term for the end of an anchor rope fastened to a bitt, before it gained a figurative meaning.