Meaning of words

The meanings of words, documented partly in dictionaries, is influenced by etymology. hahaha. even WIkipedia lists the etymology of its concepts in its articles, so that everyone who reads Wikipedia will be influenced, in part, by a part of the documented etymology of the word. 
the "consensus" you refer to is influenced by etymology. even many Internet dictionaries, such as tfd.com and Wiktionary.org, list the etymology of words.
further, e.g., everyone who reads Michel Foucault or Friedrich Nietzscheche, or the hundreds of authors influenced by Foucault or Nietzsche, will be influenced in their understanding of meanings of words, by the etymologies the former cite in their definition of concepts.