/Changed Meanings/--A number of the foregoing contributions to the American vocabulary, of course, were simply common English words with changed meanings. /To squat/, in the sense of /to crouch/, had been sound English for centuries; what the colonists did was to attach a figurative meaning to it, and then bring that figurative meaning into wider usage than the literal meaning. In a somewhat similar manner they changed the significance of /pond/, as I have pointed out. So, too, with /creek/. In English it designated (and still designates) a small inlet or arm of a large river or of the sea; in American, so early as 1674, it designated any small stream. Many other such changed meanings crept into American in the early days. A typical one was the use of /lot/ to designate a /parcel/ of land. Thornton says, perhaps inaccurately, that it originated in the fact that the land in New England was distributed by lot. Whatever the truth, /lot/, [Pg052] to this day, is in almost universal use in the United States, though rare in England. Our conveyancers, in describing real property, always speak of "all that /lot/ or /parcel/ of land."[28] Other examples of the application of old words to new purposes are afforded by /freshet/, /barn/ and /team/. A /freshet/, in eighteenth century English, meant any stream of fresh water; the colonists made it signify an inundation. A /barn/ was a house or shed for storing crops; in the colonies the word came to mean a place for keeping cattle also. A /team/, in English, was a pair of draft horses; in the colonies it came to mean both horses and vehicle. The process is even more clearly shown in the history of such words as /corn/ and /shoe/. /Corn/, in orthodox English, means grain for human consumption, and especially wheat, /e. g./, the /Corn/ Laws. The earliest settlers, following this usage, gave the name of /Indian corn/ to what the Spaniards, following the Indians themselves, had called /maíz/. But gradually the adjective fell off, and by the middle of the eighteenth century /maize/ was called simply /corn/, and grains in general were called /breadstuffs/. Thomas Hutchinson, discoursing to George III in 1774, used /corn/ in this restricted sense, speaking of "rye and /corn/ mixed." "What /corn/?" asked George. "/Indian corn/," explained Hutchinson, "or, as it is called in authors, /maize/."[29] So with /shoe/. In English it meant (and still means) a topless article of foot-wear, but the colonists extended its meaning to varieties covering the ankle, thus displacing the English /boot/, which they reserved for foot coverings reaching at least to the knee. To designate the English /shoe/ they began to use the word /slipper/. This distinction between English and American usage still prevails, despite the affectation which has lately sought to revive /boot/, and with it its derivatives, /boot-shop/ and /bootmaker/.