4 ms·
Im not sure whether that example supports your point. The Oxford dictionary is essentially an authority on spelling, and their editors and councils definitely h
by 9dev 3y ago
Im not sure whether that example supports your point. The Oxford dictionary is essentially an authority on spelling, and their editors and councils definitely have weight in debates on the proper spelling of things.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- hangonhn 3y agoWait. No. The OED is descriptive of English (UK only?) but is not prescriptive. They don't tell people what to spell or what they need to mean. They describe the spelling and meaning as it is being done. This is why there are new words that get added every year. It's not as if OED sit around and think of new words. I'm not arguing if the OP is right or not but I don't think the OED example is correct.
- School-Cotton 3y agoThe OED is definitely not UK only.
- jonathankoren 3y agoIt’s just a bad example. The Oxford Dictionary is just a publication of Oxford University Press. A popular one perhaps, but fundamentally no different than a Webster’s, or even say a Random House. Even giving it authority as a speller is suspect, since as an American, I can say with confidence that Oxford doesn’t know how to spell. A better example would be a language academy, however English has never had a language academy, unlike French or Spanish, resulting in it being a stubbornly descriptivist, rather than prescriptivist phenomenon.
- dragonwriter 3y ago> Even giving it authority as a speller is suspect, since as an American, I can say with confidence that Oxford doesn’t know how to spell. The OED, in my experience, covers the varieties of English spelling quite well, and if you want no distractions as an American but can deal with less extravagantly complete coveraged, you can always use the OAD. Oxford seems to know how to spell quite well.
- andrewjl 3y agoOAD is no longer in print and has been superseded by the New Oxford American Dictionary (NOAD).
- seabass-labrax 3y ago> Even giving it authority as a speller is suspect, since as an American, I can say with confidence that Oxford doesn’t know how to spell. I had to give a chuckle at that, but seriously, the way in which words are spelt (ahem) in the OED is genuinely interesting! They use both -ize and -ise, for instance, choosing one or the other based on each individual word's etymology.
- jonathankoren 3y agoI recently saw an author on social media remarking that their editor complained that they were mixing American and British spellings, and they should just pick one. The author was confused by the statement, because they didn’t there was anything unusual going on. Then the penny dropped. They’re Canadian.
- School-Cotton 3y ago> I can say with confidence that Oxford doesn’t know how to spell The OED includes American spellings for all of its entries.
- School-Cotton 3y agoThat’s not really true. The OED is a historical/scientific work. Its goal is to describe the English language, not to influence it. Things are not described as proper or improper in the OED, though they may of course be described as colloquially, nonstandard, regional, etc., which are not value judgments. A lot of words, especially the ones that have been around for a while, have absolutely tons of variant spellings listed, most of which a normal literate modern person has never heard of. Source: I have an OED subscription and look at it regularly.