Jesse Sheidlower, an editor at large of the OED, lets us in on lexicographers' dirty little secret:
Words that are widely used get into dictionaries. They can be regarded as ungrammatical, vulgar, unnecessary, racist, nonsensical, or ugly. Dictionaries aren't there to tell you how you should use words; they're there to show you how words are used, and if a word is used, it's likely to go in.
No comments:
Post a Comment