Semantic change (also semantic shift, semantic progression, semantic development, or semantic drift) is a form of language change regarding the evolution...

cat is composed of the phonemes /k/, /æ/ and /t/. Phememes came to be desemanticized and replaced by meaningless phonemes in later evolution. The anthropologist...

phonetic erosion, and obligatorification. Semantic bleaching, or desemanticization, has been seen from early on as a characteristic of grammaticalization...

political players and the press to describe the occupation is one of "desemanticization": occupied lands become "disputed territories"; colonies are described...