It turns out that your point is part of a fair criticism of the OED, as critics such as Oxford linguist Roy Harris [1] claim that dictionaries should be descrip

It turns out that your point is part of a fair criticism of the OED, as critics such as Oxford linguist Roy Harris [1] claim that dictionaries should be descriptive instead of prescriptive. The OED itself has also varied on its presentation of itself across its history as a resource that describes versus prescribes proper English usage. I still believe that OED definitions are reliable for checking usage in formal writing, though its definitions are less important for personal articles such as the author's. But in any case, the author still makes a good point that clear writing is useful when solving engineering problems in a team. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_English_Dictionary#Reception_and_criticism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_English_Dictionary#Rece...