Quote:
Originally Posted by Sparrow
The author made an interesting point about dictionaries - they are a record of how language is used; not an arbiter of 'correct' usage.
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There are two types of dictionaries: "descriptive" dictionaries, which are a record of how a language actually
is used, and "prescriptive" dictionaries, which are a guide to the way that it
should be used. The OED is descriptive, the German "Duden" dictionary is an example of a prescriptive dictionary (although there are, of course, descriptive dictionaries of German, too!).