Collins English Dictionary – has the world gone mad?
November 18, 2008 | Category: There
Our language is changing every day, with a multitude of new “words” becoming part of popular speech on a daily basis. Now, I am exposed to popular culture just as regularly as the next person, and I must admit that some of these new “words” have found their way into my own speech. I do not, however, even try to kid myself that they might actually be legitimate vocabulary, to be acknowledged in any proper, scholarly form. As far as I am concerned, they are merely a means of lazily expressing oneself when one cannot be bothered to construct a proper sentence to convey one’s feelings. In particular, I refer to the recent addition of “meh”, a sound made popular by The Simpsons and now regularly used throughout a large portion of the English speaking world, to the Collins English Dictionary. It reminds me of the “Scrabble Dictionary” at my Nanna’s, which, while useful when you have crappy letters, is complete and utter rubbish. Whenever we struggle to compose a word from the seven letters provided, we start to get creative, asking ourselves “I wonder if that’s in the ‘stupid book’ (as we call it)”.
Ridiculously, some of the most bizarre combinations of letters are given undeserved recognition. When did slang become appropriate? I thought one of the key rules of Scrabble was that you could not use names, proper nouns or slang? According to the Scrabble Dictionary, however, that rule seems to have been forgotten… and now, this utter indifference towards correct language usage is invading the most sacred of intellectual sanctuaries. I wonder what will be included next? I fear that before too long, text message lingo will have to be included in such publications in an attempt to make today’s youths appear smarter than they actually are. If the language of these texts is included, the fact that spelling ability is on the decline will be a non issue. Maybe for some. Personally, I don’t care if I end up sending a string of half a dozen text messages to one person simultaneously. I prefer to write in full sentences, complete with correct spelling AND punctuation, thank you very much.
To read about the impending downfall of the dictionary, click on the link below:
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24665373-401,00.html
Lily G on Sun, 23rd Nov 2008 3:07 pm
Dear Noime,
Don’t think meh is a real word how do you pronounce it?
Lily
Jessica on Mon, 24th Nov 2008 5:53 pm
“Cool” and “Awesome” earned a place in the dictionary to…
Brendan on Tue, 16th Dec 2008 1:57 pm
“Cool” and “Awesome” are not slang, their original meanings have been converted to slang. I thought a dictionary was a reference book. At school, a dictionary was a reliable source of correct vocabulary… nothing that would get you a red cross on the page. As a teacher myself, I shudder when thinking of my students using “meh” in their essays. Somehow, I don’t think university scholars/lecturers would accept that kind of slang in my papers.
Dear Collins Dictionaries,
Split your dictionary into two sections, please. The Old Testament (traditional words), and the New Testament (slang words). Please don’t mix the two. They don’t belong. Ok, thanks.
Yours sincerely,
Brendan “The Opinionated” Sinnamon
Or, in slang, “B-Dawg”
P.S Thanks Noime for letting me comment so much today!
Noime on Tue, 16th Dec 2008 3:35 pm
I like it, B-Dawg! :) The two should indeed be divided. If I EVER see “meh” in a future student’s writing, I will be very cross.
P.S. Thanks for commenting - your opinions are much appreciated.
Korschmin on Tue, 16th Dec 2008 10:04 pm
I am anaspeptic, phrasmotic even compunctuous for the Collins English Dictionary to have caused such periconbobulations.
I think Cormac McKeown head of “Dictionary’s” content, should retract this dribble interphrastically!
Yours with contrafibularities,
Sergei
hindleyite on Thu, 1st Jan 2009 9:25 am
What’s that book, the dictionary of “every single word ever used by anybody (including neologisms) since the dawn of time”?
Still, I wouldn’t go banding the word ‘meh’ around too much:
http://retroyakking.today.com/2008/12/26/sheep-to-sue-over-dictionarys-use-of-the-word-meh/
Andy on Mon, 7th Sep 2009 6:10 pm
Hello,
Reading the above comment containing the sentance “I am anaspeptic,
phrasmotic even compunctuous for the Collins English Dictionary to have
caused such periconbobulations” you will find these words have clearly been
Taken from the series Blackadder 3. However, you will not find these words
In the English dictionary, and perhaps something should be done about that.
Please comment on this page if you happen to agree with this statement.
Thank You