<<<It's my strong opinion that some of this OED one-upsmanship is about as smug and elitist as it gets.>>>
You aren't the first person to express contempt for the word-arguments and games some of us play, usually on the Grammar thread, and I don't understand it. Those of us who think it's interesting and fun, play it. I don't think we ram it down the throats of those who don't think language, and language-talk, and language-play, are fun. I think you'll notice if you visit the Grammar Lab that there is a small group of us who play very goodnatured Gotcha with each other. We threaten to bring each other to the Grammar Tribunal... the whole thing is a form of sport.
I don't know why people go around insulting other people because their idea of sport isn't like their own. Maybe you can explain that to me. Michael, we who participate, enjoy language, and find exploring it, and playing with it, and teasing each other with it, fun. It would be harder to imagine any activity more deserving of the description "good clean fun" than looking things up in the Oxford English Dictionary and debating the fine points, making jokes about it all!
Can you explain to me, and I mean this, why a number of people post quite scathingly about this harmless, educational fun?
Has any one of us ever taken you to task for a language lapse, as I have been taken to task many times, to my mixed chagrin and delight? If you have been forced to be an involuntary participant in a Tribunal, of course I can see why you would be irritated. But I don't think that has happened to any of those who make cracks similar to your OED crack. I think they just don't want us playing together with words as the game. But... why?
(It is true that almost everyone who hangs out at Grammar is a Feelings person, too; so sometimes there is a spilling over. But at worst, isn't that just an off-topic sin? And on Feelings? Off topic? I don't know. I haven't seen much insulting of people for being off-topic on this thread.)
I wish you'd explain the antagonism toward our word-play to me, Michael. Seriously. |
