On Tue, May 17, 2011 at 4:04 PM, Ted MacNEIL <[email protected]> wrote:
>>Webster's" on a dictionary has no significance - it's just an attempt to
>>cadge some legitimacy by invoking Noah Webster's name). Try AHD or OED (both
>>of which do support the usage).
> Dictionaries do NOT support usage!
> They report it!
> Any usage is subject to consensus.
> We, when I was a kid, used to say ain't ain't in the dictionary.
> It is, now!
Good point...that's what I meant by "support": they assert that it is a common
usage. The better ones (AHD comes to mind) include comments on non-standard
usage-and these evolve with each revision. (There's no such note for "issue" as
a synonym for "problem".) As a broad example, compound nouns typically evolve
from "open" ("web server") to hyphenated ("web-server") to closed
("webserver"). The OED, of course, has a group who do nothing but track this
evolution and make updates for the next rev.
However, note that the OP seems convinced that dictionaries define 'correct'
spelling and usage...
..phsiii
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