Talk:ravish

I think ravish as a word had been misused. From what I have seen the word actually means to carry away with extreme emotion, with joy or by violence doesn't matter, the word it self means to carry off with extreme emotion. The word ravish amplifies the action of being carried off with extreme emotion, or passion. The other definations have been added because of misuse. To rape is inncorrect as you would carry someone off first then rape them, there are two things happening, and one word applying to both. But the fact they are being carried away in such an extreme way is implying that they will be raped, but that is not what was said. What was said is that they are carried off with extreme emotion. As an example: to ravish the women, they are odviously being carried off with passion, with a logical assumption that they would be raped. The word, however does not mean to be raped or to rape. You certainly wouldn't say, "my dear you look rape-able tonight!" meaning that she looked like someone that would potentially be raped. Rather what is meant is that she is extremely beautiful, "my dear you look ravishing tonight." or carried away with extreme beauty. You will notice when used it means in some way to carry away, either with extreme joy, or by extreme violence, a more logical assumption would be that the word means to be carried off with extreme emotion, passion or intent. Which is basically what the definations say, but they should be given as examples not definitions. I do not believe that a word that is used in context with extreme beauty can be turned to be used as meaning to rape someone. Clearly a misuse of the word. — This unsigned comment was added by 4.255.72.127 (talk) at 3 March 2009‎.

Meanings shift and the way words are used may not always be logical, but the job of a dictionary is to define a word based on usage, not based on how it "should" be used. In this instance, the shift in meaning from "seize" to "rape" is certainly not without precedent; confer take for instance, which can be a euphemism for "to have sex with", often with the implication of force or one-sidedness. In fact, the word rape itself comes from the same Latin source as ravish: rapere, meaning "to snatch, carry off, etc." D4g0thur (talk) 04:51, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

The word rape didn't just come from the same source, it showed a similar evolution in meaning. When w:Alexander Pope wrote w:The Rape of the Lock, rape still meant "carry off with force" or "steal". This led to the idea of carrying a woman off by force, which in turn led to the currently-dominant sexual meaning. There's also a third descendent of rapiō, ravage, which changed in similar (but non-sexual) ways before it came into English, as well as rapture, rapt, and raptor. Then there's rapid, from a Latin derivative of rapiō- it shows a change in a more benign direction. Oh, and let's not forget rapacious, and rapine... Chuck Entz (talk) 06:55, 8 July 2013 (UTC)