I prefer to use WWWebster right now... but when I am researching the
significance of a word I always turn to the Oxford English Dictionary.
I have told my son that if he ever wants to give me the best gift that
money can buy it is the cd rom version...
The study of words is a science of its own. Usually a library has a
number of dictionaries on the shelves of various ages. Look up the word
and note the differences in the way it is described from one to
another. You will get the evolution of the word.
Dictionaries do not even try to say they are the end all and be all of
language. What they do try to do is give the meaning that the greatest
number of people actually use the word.
So, to go back in the history of my involvement with CoV, I took the
word streak and tried to find a dictionary that had no indication of
'run naked in public' then I found newer and newer versions until I
found the definition added. That let me get a point in time when the
word useage became common enough in the written record of the day to
justify it's inclusion.
Dictionaries also give the common root of words. Again, this speaks of
how language evolves.
I hope this is helpful information. I never know if people are really
asking for my ideas or are being funny (sarcastic..) :(
I have not gotten that impression from you David btw.
Marie, who is most grateful for David's introduction to Stephen Pinker
who rekindled her interest in the entomology of words.
David McFadzean wrote:
> At 03:14 AM 3/2/98 -0800, Marie Foster wrote:
> >Methinks that David is using the wrong dictionary.....
>
> My dictionary states that the definition of meaning can be
> significance, intention, value or purpose. It doesn't say whether
> this is a historical accident or if there is some underlying
> relation between the concepts. What dictionary do you use?
>
> --
> David McFadzean david@lucifer.com
> Memetic Engineer http://www.lucifer.com/~david/
> Church of Virus http://www.lucifer.com/virus/
--------------76A7577A255A88F1B6ACCB8A
Content-Type: text/x-vcard; charset=us-ascii; name="vcard.vcf"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Description: Card for Marie Foster
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="vcard.vcf"
begin: vcard
fn: Marie Foster
n: Foster;Marie
org: Serpent's Hold, Earth Shard
email;internet: mfos@ieway.com
title: Casey
x-mozilla-cpt: ;0
x-mozilla-html: TRUE
version: 2.1
end: vcard
--------------76A7577A255A88F1B6ACCB8A--