Words: Bully

The Word Detective says that the positive meaning of "bully" (as in Theodore Roosevelt exclaiming "Bully!", meaning "Splendid!") is older than the negative sense of "thug". It comes from the Dutch word for "lover" or "brother". (The Dutch use the same word for both? That's a trifle unseemly.) Ink magazine agrees, and suggests (plausibly) that Roosevelt's Dutch ancestry explains his usage of the word. Therefore, when Roosevelt spoke of the Presidency as a "bully pulpit", he meant it was a splendid platform.