🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <436dfdc4@212.67.96.135>, Dave <nospam@nowhere.com> wrote:

> Rich Teer wrote:
> > On Sat, 5 Nov 2005, chocolatemalt wrote:
> > 
> >> Here is the link to the definition that Logan mentioned, from one
> >> dictionary that is reflecting the more common usage:
> >>
> >>   http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/acronym
> > 
> > 
> > Huh.  Merriam-Webster is NOT, IMHO, an authority for the English
> > language.  That would be The OED (Oxfored English Dictionary).
> > 
> 
> What is the "Oxfored English Dictionary"? Where does one buy a copy?
> 
> But would agree with you about the Oxford one. I think *most* reasonably 
> well educated people in England would accept the Oxford English 
> Dictionary (link seems dead at http://www.oed.com/) more than Websters 
> or any other dictionary.

I won't be the one to say many negative things about the OED -- it's an 
awesome source of English etymology, something sorely lacking in other 
dictionaries that are trying to achieve a print edition that weighs less 
than 80 lbs.  My dad has the 1989 two-tome hyper-tiny-text version that 
is always fun to pore through with the included magnifying glass to 
chase down obscure Old Norse origins of "thorpe" or whatever.  Too bad 
the online version is so pricey.

But as the "authority" for the current spoken language, to the exclusion 
of Merriam-Webster?  Or whatever general usage you hear on the street, 
or read on the net?  Remember that dictionaries are supposed to be 
determined (however imperfectly) by the spoken language, not vice-versa.

Consider as a silly (but real) example the following:  Homer Simpson's 
"D'oh!", introduced in 1987 when The Simpsons came around, and in common 
use among the younger and college-age crowd by the early 90's, was 
finally incorporated into the OED in 2001.  Does that mean all those 
people saying "d'oh!" were wrong, until one day they were suddenly 
right, their rightness being flipped on like a light switch on the exact 
date of the new OED publication?  

Here is a choice quote from a dude from the OED itself on this subject:

    It should be understood that fully comprehensive coverage of all
    elements of the language is a chimera. That said, the content of the
    (Oxford English Dictionary) is certainly comprehensive within
    reasonable bounds.

       OED Chief Editor John Simpson (2000)

You are of course free to treat the OED as the holy authority on the 
English language and disparage other sources like M-W, but you'll be 
hard pressed to find any folks educated on the matter (i.e. linguists or 
OED Chief Editors) to agree with you.  Other dictionaries might be more 
up to date than the OED, which is more likely to take a slow and 
conservative approach to new or changed definitions.

It's an easy to trap to fall into (I did it just the other day, when 
looking up the "official" and narrow definition of "acronym" and 
believing it to be current) but one worth avoiding.  If 90%+ of the 
population is using one definition, and you're holding on to another 
definition (aided by dictionaries, perhaps outdated), then you run the 
risk of eventually sounding like a stodgy-wodge that corrects people 
saying "It's me" with "It's I", or trying to stamp out the use of 
"ain't".  It doesn't make you wrong, but neither can you make current 
general usage "wrong".

A few other relevant (and great) quotations I ran across:

    Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none, and
    the best cannot be expected to go quite true.

       Samuel Johnson (1784)

    (Samuel Johnson) quickly learned the lesson that all 
    dictionary-makers learn sooner or later, that a dictionary is out 
    of date on the day of its publication.

       Ronald Wardhaugh (1999)

> I'm not quite sure why this topic has generated so much interest. I 
> originally started it about the SS20 and set it to one or possibly two 
> newsgroups. Certainly not to "aus.computers.sun", "uk.comp.sys.sun" or 
> several of the newsgroups that have now been added to the list. I will 
> not bother adding alt.usage.english to the list!!
> 
> dave

AUE would likely yell at us to read the FAQ and not beat the 
"dictionaries vs living language" dead horse again.  A thread on SPARC 
20's (uh-oh... "20s"!) is a nice hiding place for this babble.  :P