There Can Never Be A Definitive Dictionary

Language is as language does. It is not possible to have a definitive dictionary because language is a product of society and culture, and thus changes and adapts. The row over the Big Brother contestant being evicted for using a “racially offensive word”. The word she used was “nigger”, and provoked no offended response from the black housemate to whom she had spoken. She said that the word was “a friendly term” where she came from and that “I really didn’t mean it offensively.” And she almost certainly didn’t. The problem is that language adapts, the way in which language - and specifically that word - has changed massively.

Language is also defined by context - the sentence in which words are used, the way in which the word is spoken, to whom it is being said, the time, and the place. Words have different meanings to different people. A prime example of the problem is language can be shown in the use of the word “gay”. What does it mean: Happy? Homosexual? “Bad” or “lame”? It means all of the above. How do you know which meaning is intended? Through the context. Let’s take another example - the word “liberal”. If someone told you “I’m a liberal” what would they mean? Would they mean that they are a classic liberal, a social liberal, a libertarian, or an American “liberal”? There is no way of knowing except through the context.

The way in which language is used also changes very very fast - even at just 22, I use words and meanings in a vastly different way to secondary school children now. I even use words and meanings differently to my younger brother, who is 19. Only a three year age difference, yet the interpretations of language has shifted slightly. So just think how huge the difference is between people who decide which words are “acceptable”, who are mostly in their 40s and 50s, and the teenagers who are expected to follow the rules that they have no part in making. If you think this isn’t right, just look [or think back to] a generation or two above you. Think how your parents and grandparents talk or talked, and compare it with your own. There will be big differences.

Thus no dictionary can ever be definitive, and no definition of a word can ever be completely static, as language evolves constantly. The reason we have areas where one word is completely unacceptable and another where it is a “friendly term” is because society is divided along age lines. So what can we do? Nothing, except look at the context of word usage before handing out condemnations.

Dizzy also has an excellent piece on language here.