My opinion is that, if it's in the dictionary, it's fair game. I'm certainly not anal about it. Words are fun. They are our primary window to others and it is only through language that we can share our thoughts with others.
Nuance is how we attain precision. I had an argument about a word (I don't even remember what it was) with a roommate in the Navy. He said it meant something it didn't. I said, "Let's go look it up." He said, "I don't care what the dictionary says, I know what it means." Needless to say, I considered this a fairly large character defect in an otherwise intelligent person.
If I start to refer to robins as "sparrows", the mall as a "gas station" or a pizza as "sushi", how the hell will I ever be able to get my ideas out of my head and into yours? Dictionaries have their limitations, but they represent the scaffolding upon which we build our language. Now all we need are better dictionaries. Electronic ones that are phonetic would be good. Thesauri (sorry Charley!) are good, and the only thing I can think of that is truly absent is a digest of idioms. I'm always open for links, BTW. So, post away!
I know a few years back that there was a printed version of a phonetic dictionary. There are slang dictionaries. But as far as I know, the only thing that is close to an idiomatic dictionary is a thesaurus. |
