I think zmj meant "precriptivist" since I couldn't find that "proscriptivist" is a word. Here is the reference so that you can understand the context.
Interestingly, there are only 2 sources for "prescriptivist" in Onelook, and they both say the word means the "support or promotion of prescriptive grammar." That surprised me since "prescribe" has several meanings related to law, medicine, and setting rules. One might think a "prescriptivist" could set rules in something besides grammar!
Someone who is proscriptive bans things; a prescriptivist make up lists of rules. You could say that the Ten Commandments handed to Moses were proscriptive since they all start with 'Thou shalt not...' although they are also prescriptive because they are a set of rules.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Anything "could be" a word, provided it possesses some claim to a proper and reasoned derivation. That does not mean it IS a word. English is too complicated already by half, and does not stand in need of people running about inventing words willy-nilly just because it is easier to do that than to take the trouble to write sentences using the words we already have. With the largest wordstock of any language in the world, one might think that most things would be already sayable without the need for inventing new words constantly.
I am quite prepared to be curmudgeonly about this. And that is a word.
That does not mean it IS a word. English is too complicated already by half, and does not stand in need of people running about inventing words willy-nilly just because it is easier to do that than to take the trouble to write sentences using the words we already have.
Except that is how language works: not through the efforts of an elite few tut tutting over the plebes dropping their aitches, but through the chaotic complexity of change as people speak their language with one another and with gusto. The great thing about a language is is that it pays little attention to individuals, curmedgeonly or not. Language is that which the people use to talk (and write) to one another. Some folks have a morbid desire to ressurect obsolete terms and turns of phrase, merely because they like to; others speak plainly; yet others coin new vocabulary to talk about things that weren't around a hundred or a thousand or so years ago. If I were to say that terabyte is not a word, and that it should be proscribed, that is all fine and dandy, but there are plenty of people in this world sharing oxygen with me who will continue to use the word, and there is diddly I can do about it. Oh, well.
I wonder how much more difficult it will be for etymologists eight or nine centuries hence to trace the development of 20th Century terms compared to those of the Industrial Revolution. Just as language changed to meet the developing science,technology, and society of the 17th and 18th Centuries, so did it in the century just passed, but even more so in terms that seem utterly disconnected from the meanings of the past. "Terabyte?" "Wi-fi?" "Blog?" Arrrrrghhhh!!!
It sounds to me as if it's related to "booger." I picked three boogers and five blogs from my nose this morning. It's a word Calvin, of Calvin and Hobbes fame, should have used!
Blog is such a lovely word. Blog, blog, blog. I love it! Blog!
Makes me think of that quick little bit in the movie Hocus Pocus when Sarah Jessica Parker dances around, saying "Amok, amok, amok."
I agree, I like the word "blog". I also like inventing words, trying new things, speaking with gusto! Hell, I like doing everything with gusto! What's the point of doing anything if you can't get gustofabulous about it?
******* "Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions. ~Dalai Lama
Anything "could be" a word, provided it possesses some claim to a proper and reasoned derivation. That does not mean it IS a word.
Ahhh...the underlying, ongoing question on Wordcraft has been...how do we decide what is a word? Does it have to be in the OED? Does it have to be used regularly? Is it individualistic?
Beth J. from Chicago, here's one for you...is "epicaricacy" a word? For the record, it appeared in Bailey's Dictionary in the 1700's, though somehow (and that has been discussed extensively here) didn't get included in any of the OEDs, so many don't consider it a word. It appears in 2 online dictionaries and a few published dictionaries, but they all may have copied each other, with Bailey's having the first citation. It has 625 citations in Google, many being forums such as ours that have discussed it. Not only do I consider "epicaricacy a word, but it's my favorite word.
The point is, it surely isn't black and white as to what is a word and what isn't a word, is it?This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kalleh,
It's a word Calvin, of Calvin and Hobbes fame, should have used!
