Except, of course that if we let our language change our children won't understand the scriptures. Heck, we have a hard enough time as it is.
Interesting sidenote: The thee thou, etc. form is the personal form, not the formal form. It should make your prayers more personal, not more formal.
Don't get me started on "wherefor." If I hear one more reference to /Romeo and Juliet/ that implies that she didn't know where Romeo was I'm going to scream. It's hard to imagine that someone who's actually read or seen the play could possibly think that's what she meant.
I guess you're right then, mostly.
Where it becomes important to understand how a word is used colloquially is when you're listening to someone talk to you, or reading something. It's totally irrelevant to go into what a word _really_ means unless you're the one who's going to use it. When you want to understand what someone is saying it only matters what they thought the word meant.
In this situation we're talking about how it _should_ be used so the OED does matter.
It's also important to note, however, that the OED is a dictionary from Oxford about the King's English, not American English.
The digital version has got to be way easier on your shelf (or your eyes, depending on the format). It's too bad it's so dang expensive. They oughta make data files for a dictd server and open it up.
Dang, I don't have enough time on my hands, I should be in bed.
Good night.
Andrew Hunter wrote:
Sorry... I'm sure that your girlfriend is a great person in every way, but the Oxford English Dictionary disagrees with her. It acknowledges the existence and currency of "myriad" in noun and adjective forms. As a noun, it has the following definitions:
1. As a numeral: Ten thousand. 2. (pl.) Countless numbers, hosts (of) 3. Countless numbers of men, animals, or inanimate things (to be inferred from the context)
And, before you ask, I do have way too much time on my hands. I will say, however, that the digital OED is probably one of the only reasons I keep Windows around.
Andrew
Soren Harward spake:
Just checked this with my girlfriend, whose qualifications to make a definitive statement on grammar and usage are so long I won't attempt to
list them. She says to use "myriad" in exactly the same way you would use "many": as an adjective. The noun form is technically incorrect but
is so often misused that it's gaining grudging acceptance from usage nit-pickers.
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