about this 'dictionary' biz...

[eye2i2hear]

Weblog
(not to be -necessarly- confused with Webelo)

NonEntity in a recent post mentioned per a bit of a side bar, the topic of 'dictionary' --aka as "a dictionary" but also, "the dictionary" (or "The Dictionary"). I wanted to explore the topic a bit here viz 'out loud'. Noting that often, discussions prompted from such clarify matters for me --and for such, I am quite grateful. [many 'lifers' here may find this repetitive to mundane]

So, about this word --this 'diction'? -- 'dictionary'.

Wurd:

First, with apologies to E-Prime sages for my perpetuating addiction to (the word) 'be' (to 'be' or not 2be), what is a dictionary? Taking one from the marc stevens playbook, a dictionary is four one* to 400+ pieces of paper with ink on them. Or, X number of pixels, bits and bytes on a computer(ish) display (to catch Us up a bit with Generation X). What distinguishes said Dictionary from said Constitution, apart from the number of pages (and fancy font styles) is simply the notion. The state of mind, necessitated by personal desire. Where the state of mind is but a store of information, generally held because of value (and where value comes from evaluations) -perceived or otherwise (i.e. subconscious or subliminal). *[this post's Authoritative researchers unearthed that Og and Grog's first dictionary was indeed, 1 page --well, one rock, which back then meant "page"]

Point being, essentially a 'dictionary' is a medium of storage.

Now, on to what 'it' stores --with emphasis on the use of the precise word, 'stores' e.g. WalMart, Sears, Amazon.com etal. Stores can be but mere places for shopping, viz being places of storage. What stores stock is of course a matter of value(s), and those values being individual and personal. What are 'stock markets', Alec, for 400.

First sidebar: I am already, of course, off [sic] to the proverbial races; for not only has this whole writing consisted of words, but within that I've been appealing to yet more words --or more precisely, to more words meanings e.g. "store". That noted, I'll continue, with anticipation of hopefully covering that aspect in the process. Main point here being: the inevitable realization/presumption that most 'words' hold a common/popular enough meaning; I am after all, not typing/writing/saying this in Italian or French etc. (it may all be Greek to you, but that's another matter, gLingo)

So, my point thus far is that dictionaries are but repositories; stores (of information). And as such, the values of such are personal. Hopefully that's reasonable to you? [if not, never fear, there's always The State Rules]

Next, dictionaries are essentially historical usage records (not to be confused with All Time Greatest Hits records -which are records of records?!-- but very similar in essential nature). In support of this reality, need I say more than tweet, google, post, troll, spam, bromance, and wittol? [ok, that last one was a bit of a trick; because actually a dictionary entry for wittol is wuz*: "a man who tolerates his wife's infidelity" --and according to one historian, it's fell out of use since the 1940s, and thus is at risk of removal from his dictionary; point being of course, what distinguishes 'tweet' and 'wittol'?] *[according to The Official NonEntitionary Online, the wurd 'wux' means: "either was or is, but not 2b"]

Evidence in support:

Oxford English Dictionary Wrote:
Recent updates to the OED
The OED is updated four times a year, every March, June, September, and December.
The material added to the dictionary includes revised versions of existing entries (which replace the older versions), and both within the alphabetical sequence of and also across the whole A to Z range.
Published quarterly since 2000, the updates make up the Third Edition of the OED. 

The latest update
With December's update we arrive at the start of the alphabet with revisions to words and phrases beginning with the letter A, from aa (a stream or watercourse) to aevum (an age; eternity), including abstract, ace, Adam’s apple, and adolescent.

There are over 1,200 newly revised and updated entries in all.

•    New words added in this update
The OED publishes four updates each year. The next update will be added to the dictionary in March 2011.

Previous updates
The previous updates page gives a full list of updates from March 2000 to September 2011.

Note too, that the "revisions" include removals/deletions.

With this awareness, one might ask: who decided -as by what authority- a new word was indeed a word, The Dictionarian? Or popular opinion, aka popular usage? Thus, isn't a Dictionarian simply one who monitors popular opinion? Who then at some point (say 4 times a year) compiles such into a historical record? Who is The Authoritay then? Might it be, the one who first coined the sound/lettering? Or is it perhaps each and every individual who over time found such in "store", on the market, and valued it --thus "bought into it" --and resold it?!

Back to the other aspect of this as it's opposite: words being removed from dictionaries e.g. here. Bonus question: if a word is removed from a dictionary, does it no longer have meaning (or "a meaning"/"the meaning")? [significant hint: The Final Answer, Regis, is personal]

Does a word get removed from The Dictionary because it no longer has meanings --or is it simply a revelation of the core point: it's all about popularity rather than factual meaning?! Thus it's only meaning is it's value --to one or more individuals (aka voluntary agreement). Democracy regarding words carries no more (logically arrived at) value than it does with The State!? Which is not to discount (see 'value') such as a historical record, but only as Authoritarian -which is not to confuse that it indeed has an author (who relies on originating 'authors'?).

Perhaps one of the most interesting dictionary entries to consider is the word 'authority' (or more popularly understood, 'Authority').
An aside of that is to consider: why do so many take dictionary ("Dictionary") entries to be Authoritarian? My hunch tells me that it comes from where most learned their first such words to begin with: Public Education (aka Authoritarian Indoctrination)?

In summary, while it's quite enticing and tempting (and oft very popular) to play The Authority Card (see playing The State Card?) via calling "DICTIONARY!", I offer that that is factually, all it amounts to --a call/one's call. Whether another buys it or not is the crux of the matter. And if and when another doesn't, well one's reaction to that tells the proverbial story, no? Cool? Nang? Kewel? Fly? Hip? You down widdit? Jiggy whut?

Words are essentially short cuts; expression compressions. Dictionaries are momentary collections of short cuts, past and presently (but not necessarily forever) used shortcuts --wherein ironically, they themselves are but shortcuts! Conjunction Junctions, that's their functions. The 'paper' dictionaries are on and the 'ink' (or the 'drive', NonMario Andretti) being the only factual aspect.

And in closing, for the REAL Authority buffs:

Mattel Scrabble Game Rules 2011 Wrote:Some of the new words included in the latest edition of Collins Official Scrabble Words:
ALOO: potato (4 points)
BLINGY: from the word ‘bling’, meaning flashy (12 points)
BLOOK: an online book (11 points
BREDREN: brother (10 points)
DARKNET: software and servers used to distribute files (12 points)
FACEBOOK: social media website (19 points)
FIQH: an expansion of Islamic sharia law (19 points)
GOBI: cauliflower (7 points)
GRRL: a woman with attitude (5 points)
INBOX: email folder for incoming mail (14 points)
INNIT: short for “isn’t it?” (5 points)
MYSPACE: social media website (16 points)
NANG: cool (5 points)
PUNAANY: female genitals (12 points)
QIN: a Chinese zither (12 points)
THANG: slang word for thing (9 points)
TIK, TINA, GAK: drug slang (7 points, 4 points, 8 points)
TWIGLET: wheat snack (11 points)
VLOG: video blogging (8 points)
WAGYU: a breed of cattle (12 points)
WEBZINE: online magazine (21 points)
WIKI: form of online publication (11 points)

From The State of Scrabble,
--NonPuNaanye2

[NonEntity]

Damn, man! You were just gettin' rolling and then... PFFT! Like someone took a meat cleaver to your tongue.

- NonE

By the way, a favorite author of mine is Florence King. I needed two books to read her. One, her book, Two, a dictionary available for ready reference. She also turned out to be one of the small group of people who advise as to which words get into and out of a given dictionary (I forget which). I also seem to remember that she wrote about dictionaries and how they came about and evolved and so on, and I remember that somewhere in that writing she mentioned the actual number of words that more or less exist in the english language, pointing out that if one includes all of the special words, like those used by doctors, engineers, musicians, physicists and on and on, that populate bunches of specialized dictionaries, that the number of actual english words is Hugerific indeed. (My computer's dictionary seems to be flagging the word "Hugerific" for some reason.)

Anyway, you may find her fun to pursue. Not that you'll get far as she is a Rightwing Redneck Southern Lesbian, if THAT ain't a wonderful contradiction. :-)

[eye2i2hear]

(12-30-2011 12:03 PM)NonEntity Wrote:  Damn, man! You were just gettin' rolling and then... PFFT! Like someone took a meat cleaver to your tongue.

See the word "punaany" I copy/pasted, seeing it for the first time, and you should understand what the "meat cleaver" was...

[NonEntity]

(12-30-2011 12:45 PM)eye2i2hear Wrote:  

(12-30-2011 12:03 PM)NonEntity Wrote:  Damn, man! You were just gettin' rolling and then... PFFT! Like someone took a meat cleaver to your tongue.

See the word "punaany" I copy/pasted, seeing it for the first time, and you should understand what the "meat cleaver" was...

Aha! I see. You got, like TOTALLY distracted!

- NonEasilyDisuadedFromMyObjective