on 4/10/02 3:21 am, Dan Minette at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "William T Goodall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "BRIN-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Wednesday, October 02, 2002 10:46 PM > Subject: Re: Intellectual output from the Arab World > > >> on 3/10/02 4:29 am, Dan Minette at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >> >>> >>> You looked up Semite, not anti-Semitic. >> >> I looked up anti-Semitic. I quoted the definition >> >> "Anti-Semite a hater of Semites, esp. Jews, or of their influence. - adj. >> Anti-Semitic. - n." > > OK, so you did, sorry I missed it.
You wouldn't need to be apologising if you just read a little more carefully :) > I've got another question for you. > > Do you consider OED authorative? Yes and no. Yes I do, but not in the sense I suspect you mean. Dictionaries are descriptive rather than prescriptive: that is they describe how words *are* used not how words *ought* to be used. Additionally they are inclusive rather than exclusive: if a usage is in a dictionary that means that some people have used the word that way, but if a usage is not in a dictionary that does not mean that the word has not been used that way by some people. > > Do you think that people shouldn't be allowed to coin words to mean things > that bend or break common linquistic patterns. (For example, should we not > have allowed the term computer bug to exist?) I like neologisms. > > Do you argue with the etomology of anti-Semetic? Etymology isn't about the use of words, but about their derivation. Arguing about the etymology of a word is best left to philologists. An example (maybe not a brilliant one) of etymology and use diverging is the current popular usage of 'decimate'. > > Finally, to go back to our discussion on religion, I'd love to see the > entry on religion from OED (hint hint Julia :-) ) > How could the dictionary definition of the word be more useful for a serious discussion of the subject than the more detailed and expert definitions of two professional theologians? [That I provided earlier.][1] [1] By John MacQuarrie (Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, Oxford University, Oxford, England.) and Walter Holden Capps, Ph.D., Former Professor of Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara. -- William T Goodall [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk/ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
