I contend, most seriously, that there is a real need for a good, thick, complete-as-possible dictionary of 'What People Used to Call Things.'
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I've been called a lot of things.
If you have a big enough dictionary, just about everything is a word.
At a certain point, what people mean when they use a word becomes its meaning.
People are under the impression that dictionaries legislate language. What a dictionary does is keep track of usages over time.
Not everything has a name. Some things lead us into a realm beyond words.
Many of the familiar little things that we use every day have typically evolved over a period of time to a state of familiarity. They balance form and function, elegance and economy, success and failure in ways that are not only acceptable, but also admirable.
I'm very sensitive to the English language. I studied the dictionary obsessively when I was a kid and collect old dictionaries. Words, I think, are very powerful and they convey an intention.
Names, once they are in common use, quickly become mere sounds, their etymology being buried, like so many of the earth's marvels, beneath the dust of habit.
We think people go to a dictionary to find out what a word means. Most people go to the dictionary because they don't want to look stupid.
Spellings are made by people. Dictionaries - eventually - reflect popular choices.
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