Word up

The meaning of words can change over time, while at the same time words can fall into ignorant misusage. How do you make the distinction? How do we decide to correct a person's incorrect word handling or determine if it's time to rewrite the dictionary?

"Feminism" and "Feminist" by the dictionary refer to an equality of the sexes ideology. For many of today, however, the words have lost their original meaning and now carry certain other connotations. It gets somewhat silly when the general populace has to constantly be reminded of the actual meanings of the words. Are they even wrong anymore? The meaning of a word seems to be a somewhat arbitrary thing, fully capable of change. If language is truly about communication, isn’t that the idea is successfully conveyed between persons what matters most? I'm a stickler for using proper word definitions, but I fully accept that the definition of a word is the thought that the word carries rather than what the dictionary says it means. The original meaning of the word can always be noted. If the vulgar crowd is using a word in a manner other than how is "proper", it should be considered that is has become the modern meaning of the word.

While we're on the subject of words I couldn't resist throwing something in: as a young boy I was told that there is no word that rhymes with the "orange". For some reason I don't understand now I found this unsettling, and I suppose in an early act of rebellion I invented the word "borange". Borange rhymes with orange. I from then on was quite happy to be able to inform parents and grandparents that, actually, there was a word that rhymed with "orange" - "borange"! Unfortunately, the original meaning of the word I'd devised has been lost to me over the years...judging from at what I was interested in at the time I created it, it was likely a time machine, or a robot dinosaur, or probably a machine for making orange juice.