"Pennyaline" > wrote in
message ...
> "RPS" wrote:
> Sorry guys, but GIFT is wrong. It's one of the products of sound bite
> mentality, where day to day language and usage is shaped to resemble
> advertisements. Frankly, I couldn't care less if you find it in the OED.


What--you DARE to question the OED?!? NOW you've crossed the line. The
history of English dictionaries parallels the development of constitutional
and representative government. Authoritative pioneers like Johnson and
Webster were like lexicographic kings: if Johnson said that the definition
of "lexicographer" was "a harmless drudge," then, voila! It was so. The
OED represents the overthrow of 18th century tyrants by constitutional
governments. When the people speak on how a word should be used--by
actually using that word in particular and demonstrable ways in significant
numbers--then the language is amended, and modern dictionaries reflect the
record of that evolution.

Real dictionaries (like the OED) document the language; they don't presume
to dictate to the people their sacred right to coin, modify, pervert, and
even abandon words as the people see fit.

Death (metaphorically speaking) to lexicographic tyranny!