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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlallen who wrote (11662)	4/17/2001 12:16:05 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 82486

If a majority of people agree on the meaning of a word, isn't that truth- it is the truth of peoples usage of a word (until humanity changes it's collective mind)? Unless you believe in objective truth. Then you are verging on the religious, and I don't go there.

To: jlallen who wrote (11662)	4/17/2001 12:31:23 PM
From: Lane3	Respond to of 82486

How do we know those are the correct (truthful) standards?? I don't see why they have to be either correct or truthful. Words mean whatever we generally accept them to mean. We expect the dictionary writers to represent the generally accepted meanings with integrity. I believe that they take that trust quite seriously. If a certain dictionary fails in that trust, it would be noticed by the community and the dictionary would lose favor and be replaced by a more trustworthy one. Sure, the dictionary folks need to exercise some judgment about when a new usage has become "common" and they may not time that entry into the dictionary exactly right but I don't consider that a breach of integrity, correctness, truthfulness or anything else. It will sort itself out well enough over time. Karen