The major purpose of this study is to investigate the semantic development of Amharic words.rnAttention is given to investigating factors that have triggered the changes, analyzing andrnclas sifying the findings based on the taxonomies of semantic change, and exploring possiblern' laws' that govern the changes.rnThe semantic behavior of the words und er study is compared in the older and the newerrndictionaries to achi eve the foregoing objectives. The results of the study show that a multiplicityrnof factors have led to change in the semantics of Amharic words. Various kinds of meaningrnchanges are identified on the basis ofthe different factors and association mechanisms thatrnunderlie the words.rnWords have changed their meanings pejoratively, askiir ' boy or girl' > 'servant'; amelioratively, .rnzega 'beggar' > 'citizen'; metaphorically, 8mmdrta ' leaping' > ' progress'; metonymically,rnc'8nk'8Ilat 'brain' > 'skull'. Meanings have also undergone specialization, 8s ' ' plant' > 'drug ';rngeneralization, wdyzdro 'queen' > 'a title for any married woman' ; and semantic bleachingfitrn'face' > temporal (past or future). In addit ion to th ese general tend encies, some specificrntendencies are also seen in "person body-parts" anddbdl ' palate' > 'speech-producing organs'.rnMetaphor is found to be by far the most pervasive force in many of these chan ges.rnThis discussion of semantic change suggests that most of the meaning changes come under thernoverriding principle : concrete meaning becomes abstract.rnThe study had to confront two basic problems: the acute lack of an etymo logical dictionary ofrnApillaric, and the absence of a systematic classification of the hi s torical stages of the language.rnScholars shou ld give se rious attention to both of these problems .