Now on YouTube: Evolution in linguistics – theoretical innovation, metonymy, and miscommunication. This is the talk I gave on 12 May, 2023, in the online lecture series Innovation in Linguistics, organized by the journal Cognitive Semantics. I address the reasons why 19th century linguists failed to recognize the depth of the conceptual innovation resulting from Darwin’s discoveries, how 20^th and 21^st century linguistics does better, but is still in need of using its terminology much more rigidly.