I was watching an old western. The homesteaders were in their cabin. A line of Indians was quietly sitting on their horses along the ridge. I sat aghast as the older homesteader turned to his younger brother and said, Waste one of them! The younger brother put his gun through the window and shot a bullet into the air to try and frighten the Indians away! The older brother meant, "Waste one of the bullets!!!!" I had a good laugh when I realized that I had interpreted the word "waste" in a modern "Dirty Harry" sort of context, but that's not how the word was used back in the days of the Wild West - or even when that old western was made.
Our language has and continues to evolve and this can cause some confusion as we try to evaluate early records in our genealogy research, for example..
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