{"id":1172,"date":"2016-07-02T09:40:09","date_gmt":"2016-07-01T21:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=1172"},"modified":"2016-07-02T09:40:09","modified_gmt":"2016-07-01T21:40:09","slug":"dont-blame-the-dictionaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=1172","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t blame the dictionaries"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=921\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-921\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-921\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/SOD-277x300.jpg\" alt=\"SOD\" width=\"277\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/SOD-277x300.jpg 277w, https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/SOD.jpg 499w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 277px) 100vw, 277px\" \/><\/a>One of the downsides of having lived a lot longer than I ever expected to live is that, when it comes to language, I find that I am displaying more and more \u2018grumpy old man\u2019 traits.<\/p>\n<p>Whenever I see a sign suggesting that this is a checkout for 12 items or less, I find myself muttering \u2018Fewer, you fool!\u00a0 Less is for stuff that can\u2019t be counted.\u00a0 Less sand; but fewer grains of sand.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>And don\u2019t get me started on (to my mind) the mis-use of \u2018anticipated\u2019.\u00a0 When I see or hear someone writing or talking about the \u2018much anticipated\u2019 new album by The Intergalactic Sparrows (for example) I find my heart going out to whomever has been charged with the task of mitigating the event\u2019s effects.<\/p>\n<p>And then, just this afternoon, I heard a woman on the radio grumbling about the use of the word resilience.<\/p>\n<p>Apparently, for the best part of a year, she had found the phrase \u2018resilience strategy\u2019 \u2018particularly grating\u2019. \u00a0But, once she had looked up the \u2018dictionary definition\u2019 of resilience, she decided that she was a little more comfortable with it.\u00a0 Her dictionary had spoken.<\/p>\n<p>One part of me was pleased (for her, anyway).\u00a0 Another part of me was anything but pleased.<\/p>\n<p>Despite that fact that, as a writer and editor, I find myself referring to dictionaries several times a day, I also recognise that most modern dictionaries are <em>descriptive<\/em> rather than <em>prescriptive<\/em>.\u00a0 They record how people <em>use<\/em> words; they do not prescribe how people<em> should<\/em> use words.<\/p>\n<p>When \u2013 just a few days ago \u2013 I heard someone grumbling about how people \u2018flaunt the rules\u2019, my grumble should, perhaps, have trumped his.\u00a0 But he was just using \u2018flaunt\u2019 in a way that many people now use it.<\/p>\n<p>Is it \u2018correct\u2019?\u00a0 I don\u2019t think so.\u00a0 But is it common usage?\u00a0 Unfortunately it is.<\/p>\n<p>So, don\u2019t blame the dictionaries.\u00a0 In the end, words mean what people mean them to mean.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the downsides of having lived a lot longer than I ever expected to live is that, when it comes to language, I find that I am displaying more and more \u2018grumpy old man\u2019 traits. Whenever I see a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=1172\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1173,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1172\/revisions\/1173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}