Over time words take on new or additional meanings. At the Guardian David Shariatmadari observed that, where once in the West there was controversy about the change in the meaning of the word ‘gay’, ‘a similar row is playing out in China, where the word tongzhi, whose literal meaning is “comrade” increasingly only has one interpretation. That didn’t stop the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary from prudishly refusing to list its common connotation, with one compiler telling the BBC they “did not want to draw attention to its more colloquial meaning”.’