Some words have changed their meaning in just the opposite way. From having one special meaning they have come by degrees to have a much more general sense. The word _bureau_, which came into English from the French, meant at first merely a "desk" in both languages. It still has this meaning in both languages, but a wider meaning as well. It can now be used to describe an office (a place associated with the idea of desks). Thus we have "employment bureau," and can get English money for foreign at a "bureau de change." From this use of the word we have the word _bureaucracy_, by which we describe a government which is carried on by a great number of officials. A better example of how a word containing one special idea can extend its meaning is the word _bend_. This word originally meant to pull the string of a bow in order to let fly an arrow. The expression "bend a bow" was used, and as the result of pulling the string was to curve the wooden part of the arrow, people came in time to think that "bending the bow" was this making the wood to curve. From this came our general use of "bend" to mean forcing a thing which is straight into a curve or angle. We have, of course, also the metaphorical use of the word, as when we speak of bending our will to another's. Another word which has had a similar history is _carry_. When this word was first borrowed from Old French it meant to move something from place to place in a cart or other wheeled vehicle. The general word for our modern _carry_ was _bear_, which we still use, but chiefly in poetry. In time _carry_ came to have its modern general sense of lifting a thing from one place and removing it to another. A well-known writer on the history of the English language has suggested that this came about first through people using the word in this sense half in fun, just as the word _cart_ is now sometimes used. A person may say (a little vulgarly), "Do you expect me to cart all these things to another room?" instead of using the ordinary word carry. If history were to repeat itself in this case, _cart_ might in time become the generally used word, and _carry_ in its turn be relegated to the realm of poetry.