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this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2024
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No Stupid Questions
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There is no such thing as a Stupid Question!
Don't be embarrassed of your curiosity; everyone has questions that they may feel uncomfortable asking certain people, so this place gives you a nice area not to be judged about asking it. Everyone here is willing to help.
- ex. How do I change oil
- ex. How to tie shoes
- ex. Can you cry underwater?
Reminder that the rules for lemmy.ca still apply!
Thanks for reading all of this, even if you didn't read all of this, and your eye started somewhere else, have a watermelon slice 🍉.
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So, someone could release their own dictionary and thus become a DEFINITIVE authority on language?
Dictionaries are supposed to reflect the official lexicon.
At what point does slang enter the official lexicon?
Wow. I’m not sure if you’re serious or trolling.
But to answer your question, someone did release their own dictionary… and, thus, became a definitive authority on language… in 1847. That someone (actually someones) were the Merriam brothers. They then bought a license from another someone named Webster. Maybe you’ve heard of them.
If you are serious, you are digging pretty damn deep trying to make your point. If you’re not careful, you might come out on the other side of the world.
So anyone with standards is a troll now? Jesus fuck.
Dictionaries are descriptive, not prescriptive; when meanings get changed by popular usage, so too do dictionaries follow.
Terribly sorry you're learning this so late in life. Might have saved yourself some frustration otherwise.