You are currently browsing the daily archive for October 12th, 2007.
I find myself using dictionaries a lot. Because I generally subscribe to the view of language as a fluid construct embedded in the mind of individuals and as an emergent phenomenon of a group of speakers, I don’t believe dictionaries are the final arbiters of correct word usage. In high school, things were different. I remember having arguments over word meanings and then resorting to the dictionary to make claims such as “it can’t mean that” or “that word does not exist.” Now I find those statements to be rubbish. If a group of people uses a word a certain way to communicate (and they understand each other), then that is a correct usage of a real word. This is different than when I say “I sent my check to the university ombudsman” when I meant to say “I sent my check to the university bursar.” This case is an instance of performance failure, where I accidentally used the wrong word.
The dictionary I use most commonly nowadays is dictionary.com. Their advantage is the fact that they draw on many different dictionaries simultaneously (though the results are presented separately). You can see the definitions given by Random House, Merriam Webster, American Heritage, WordNet, and a bunch of others. I just noticed today that they have added the Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary. You are given the word in an array of languages including Arabic, Chinese, Korean, French, German, Norwegian, Finnish, Icelandic, Hungarian, etc. Most common European languages are included and a few of the most common Asian languages. Noticeably absent is Swahili, nor is any other language from Africa included. Also included is the Online Dictionary of Computing, which is a nice touch. Look up the word tickle and you find a text editor for the Mac.
