Some dictionaries are more perscriptivist, but even with the ones that change faster they’re always playing catch up with how people use words. But in terms of “liberal” most of them have both definitions.
The thing that bugs me these days is people (many of them here on Lemmy) that use “neoliberal” to mean “modern liberal” when that’s not its original meaning at all. It really means “liberal in its 19th Century sense of free and unfettered capitalism” aka “modern conservative”.
Yeah, it’s lexicon vs literal definition.
How people generally use words often makes me wonder why we have dictionaries at all.
I’m concerned that some of you don’t have a lot of experience with the outside world.
In what way? I just acknowledged that most of America defines the word as anything left of Newt Gingrich.
Oh, sorry, not you. I agree and updooted accordingly. Some of the other comments, I meant.
Some dictionaries are more perscriptivist, but even with the ones that change faster they’re always playing catch up with how people use words. But in terms of “liberal” most of them have both definitions.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/liberal
The thing that bugs me these days is people (many of them here on Lemmy) that use “neoliberal” to mean “modern liberal” when that’s not its original meaning at all. It really means “liberal in its 19th Century sense of free and unfettered capitalism” aka “modern conservative”.