A WORD, PLEASE — egregious

continuity: Next, Professor Aubrey Vellum, with a word that went from a standing ovation to a groan.

the verdict: You know the moment a teacher hands back a test, frowns at one answer, and calls it an egregious mistake? Everybody winces, because that word just sounds like trouble. But here's a secret: for a long stretch of its life, egregious was one of the nicest things you could say about a person.

a word, please: Egregious. A word, please.

the crack: Go back to ancient Rome, where the word was egregius, ay-GREG-ee-oos, and it was built from two little pieces. The first, e, meant 'out of,' and grex meant 'the flock' or 'the herd.' So an egregius person was someone who stood out from the flock: distinguished, outstanding, the one you'd point to in a crowd. People sometimes say the Romans used it for a prize sheep picked out of the pasture. It's a lovely picture, but it isn't the real story. The flock was the crowd of ordinary people, and the word was a compliment for a human being. Honestly, that's the better story anyway.

the collision: In the middle of the fifteen hundreds, English scholars who adored Latin brought the word straight over. They used it the Roman way, to praise rare goodness and even holiness. An egregious person was a remarkable person. Then something sly happened. People started pairing it with insults, like an egregious fool, and saying it with a raised eyebrow. Bit by bit, standing out from the flock came to mean standing out for all the wrong reasons. Meanwhile, in Italian, a polite letter can still begin Egregio Signore , which means 'distinguished sir.' It's the same word and the same flock. English simply turned around and started booing.

the glimmer: And that tells us something true about people: say a compliment with a smirk often enough, and it turns into a joke. The flock always notices the one who steps out. It just can't always decide whether to cheer or to laugh.

the exit: That's the word. Next time you stand out from the flock, I hope it's the old-fashioned way.