In treating separately […] the subjects of change of form and change of meaning in words, we are not parting two necessarily connected and mutually dependent processes, but only recognizing a natural independence. A word may change its form, to any extent, without change of meaning; it may take on an entirely new meaning without change of form. As a matter of fact, the words are few or none which have not done both […].
- Whitney (1875), a pag.49