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Specialized, but Unacceptable, Meanings for Words

You often see and hear the word "quality" used in an attributive manner -- as in "quality workmanship" -- this use is not formally acceptable in literary language or official communications. Not that you won't find s ome defenders of this usage. Even Shakespeare used "quality" in the sense of "high quality, excellence":

The Grecian youths are full of qualitie,
Their loving well composed, with guift of nature.-- Troilus and Cressida: IV. iv).

Since the attributive use of "quality", as in "quality workmanship", is sometimes questioned, however, it's better not to use it. The alternative that nobody will object to is "high-quality" (for which the OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY's first citation is from 1910).

Similarly specialized meanings have accrued, at least informally, to a number of other words, too:

fortune meaning "good fortune"
luck meaning "good luck"
behave meaning "to behave properly"
criticize meaning "to criticize unfavorably"
temper meaning "ill-temper, short temper"
class meaning "high class, elegance"
temperature meaning "feverish temperature"
attitude meaning "hostile attitude"

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