:If you're saying that the original meaning of a word is not totally removed from its current meaning, thanks to a chain of partial overlaps, then of course you're right. This is what happened with what's now the word "vernacular". If on the other hand you want to say that the meaning of a word somehow includes, or necessarily reminds literate users of, its earlier meanings, then just off the top of my head I give you as counterexamples "lumber" (see Nicholson Baker's essay on that one word) and "shambles". (Please also note the "etymological fallacy", here at the Fallacy Files.) ¶ William E. Welmers was a real linguist, best known for his African Language Structures (1973), a book with which I regret to say that I'm unfamiliar but which sounds most impressive. NB it was published before many of today's linguists were born, and linguistics knowledge has advanced. This is no reason to reject it out of hand, but is reason to think hard before citing it. Who are Smith and Kambon? More broadly, whoever your "linguists who specialize in African structures" may be, which university presses  or academic publishers of similar standing (DeGruyter, Wiley, Benjamins, etc)  have recently published their work, and where?