A California man will appear before a judge Friday at the federal courthouse in Springfield on charges of threatening violence against a company that publishes dictionaries.
Jeremy David Hanson, it seems, is unhappy with some of the definitions Merriam-Webster has posted on its popular online site.
Though English teachers are thrilled when anyone delves deeply into words, their meaning and their usage, we would generally like to see such endeavors unfold without bloodshed.
Hanson, 34, specifically objects to terms related to gender and posted an angry comment regarding one Merriam-Webster definition: “The imbecile who wrote this entry should be hunted down and shot.” He used other threatening language in messages to the Springfield-based publisher.
Unfortunately, Hanson appears to suffer from a misconception that is widely held: that dictionaries are the rulebooks for language.
In reality, dictionaries reflect how language is currently being used. (At least this is true for English. In France there is an entire academy whose main task is apparently to keep English words out of French.)
Creating words, or new meanings for words that already exist, is a bottom-up process. Lexicographers, the people who write dictionary entries, monitor how people of all ages, regions, education-levels and socioeconomic status, use language. They scour books, magazines, newspapers, blogs, social media, advertising — any source that uses text — and take note of the ways that words are used.
We should remember that every word started out as a new term a single person uttered or wrote down. Sometimes these creations catch on. The term “selfie,” for example, didn’t exist 20 years ago, and now it’s ubiquitous.
Young people are constantly repurposing words to use as they see fit. Some examples are “woke” (meaning “alert to injustice,” according to one online source), “tea” (gossip), “shook” (shocked and surprised) and “straight fire” (something cool or impressive).
Language is there for all of us to utilize, including adapting it to whatever circumstances demand. It’s a tool for communication, and none of us need to check with any authority as a prerequisite for using it.
The role of the dictionary is not to command adherence to a set of official definitions, but rather to reflect the multitude of ways English is currently being spoken and written.
A person who threatens lexicographers because a definition makes him or her angry is shooting the messenger. That’s ridiculous. Anyone who wants to influence the language is free to do it the old-fashioned way: invent new words or modify old ones.
Jim Correale is a teacher and writer living on the North Shore.
