On Thu, 9 Sep 2004 12:51:10 -0700, Michael Geary wrote:
> It is interesting that you would say that the American Heritage Dictionary,
> Princeton University's WordNet 2.0, Merriam-Webster, and the Encyclopedia
> Britannica are all "not quite correct." I always thought of them as
> reasonably authoritative sources, but then what do I know, I'm just a dumb
> haole.
There is a misunderstanding running through this discussion, which is
David's sincere but, IMHO, mistaken belief that there is one single
definition and use of the word contiguous which is correct and so any
different use will be incorrect.
Dictionaries are not prescriptive, unlike say laws or RFCs, they just
describe how words are used, and to say that their descriptions are wrong
is tantamount to calling the editors liars for claiming the existence of
usage which does not in truth exist. Clearly the editors are not wrong
because they are describing the same use (or in David's view misuse) of
the word as is enjoyed by me and several other subscribers to this list.
I wish anyone who finds themself in the path of Hurricane Ivan (and also
their Thinkpads) a safe weekend.
Tony
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Received on Fri Sep 10 06:05:24 2004
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