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What petty hill will you die on? (beehaw.org)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/chat@beehaw.org
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For me I say that a truck with a cab longer than its bed is not a truck, but an SUV with an overgrown bumper.

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[–] 7 points 3 years ago (1 child)

Yes. Ling PhD here -- after teaching for 10+ years, the thing most people consistently do not understand about language is: the dictionary does not define what words mean. Dictionaries at best are a representation of what words meant at one time, and those meanings change quickly and pervasively enough that there is constantly a non-zero* number of words for which the dictionary is already wrong.

*in actuality it's probably significantly higher than what is connotated by "non-zero"

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago

    Yes, this is the excuse I use too when I mess up the pronunciation of a word and people have an issue with it. They understood the meaning so the communication was successful which is the point.

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