How a Dictionary Gets Written
Samuel Johnson thought he could fix the language. He spent nine years on his Dictionary of 1755 and concluded that no lexicographer could do it: words move faster than anyone can pin them down. Modern dictionaries are built on that admission.
Descriptive, not prescriptive
Lexicographers record usage. They collect a corpus — millions of words of real writing — and look at how a word is used, how often, and in what company. A sense is added when evidence accumulates, not when someone approves it. This is why dictionaries disagree with each other, and why a word can appear in one before another.
How a sense is added
An editor gathers citations spanning multiple years and independent authors, then drafts a definition and assigns a label — informal, archaic, offensive. Reviewers check it against further evidence. The Oxford English Dictionary famously tracked 'literally' used as an intensifier for over a century before recording it. Recording is not endorsing; it is reporting.
Why people still argue
People want a dictionary to settle arguments, and a dictionary is the wrong instrument for that. It tells you what has been understood, not what should be allowed. The argument about a usage is a social one; the dictionary is just the transcript.
Knowledge check
Two questions, no score
What is a descriptive dictionary?
Now prove it