In 1990s China, if a young man in society told someone, “This is my mazi,” many people would understand it to mean: this is his girlfriend. But if you put this phrase in ancient times, people from the past might not understand it at all. Because “maz(i)” was originally not about women, but a household item—a chamber pot used at night. A word that today signifies an intimate relationship was once tied to human excrement. So why can a word change so drastically? Because language is never fixed. It is not a dictionary written once and then unchanged forever—it’s a system that evolves along with society. When social structures, lifestyles, and relationships between people change, the meanings of words are reassigned. For example, “laogong” (husband). Today, when we say “laogong,” it means husband, and it’s a term of intimacy. But in ancient times, “laogong” wasn’t husband at all; it was even used to refer to older men, and later it became associated with eunuchs. The same word, in different eras, carries different social relationships. So in many cases, we think we are using language, but in reality, language also shapes how we perceive things. The words you say every day may hide centuries of historical change behind them. Understanding how a word changes is, in fact, understanding how a society changes.