On 22 September 2014 12:41, Brian Barker <[email protected]> wrote: > At 12:28 22/09/2014 -0500, T. R. Valentine wrote: >> >> On 22 September 2014 12:00, Brian Barker wrote: >>> >>> What a pity they cannot spell "flak" - even in a headline! >> >> >> http://www.thefreedictionary.com/flak >> Both are correct. > > > No: sorry, but that's silly, of course. A dictionary's purpose is to help > readers understand what they find - correct or incorrect. So any dictionary > worth its salt will indeed list common wrong versions as well as correct > ones. They are descriptive and don't provide any imprimatur. As someone > memorably said, "_Fliegerabwehrkanone_ has nineteen letters, none of which > is a C"!
No, a dictionary is typically said to be descriptive rather than prescriptive. But it doesn't say something is acceptable when it is not. For example, at the same site, try http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Priviledge it redirects you to the correct spelling and has nothing about spelling with a 'd' being acceptable (because it isn't). Merriam-Webster also says 'flack' is an alternative spelling for 'flak'. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flack Different dictionaries use different labelling, but will generally distinguish between equally valid (e.g. theatre/theater); acceptable, but as a second, less-desirable choice (which is what I believe flak/flack is), and non-standard or substandard (e.g. irregardless). A web site will try to anticipate misspelt words (Google's search is very good at that, and that is what thefreedictionary.com is doing with 'priviledge'), but that isn't the same thing. -- T. R. Valentine A rich heart may be under a poor coat. -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: [email protected] Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
