"There are two prominent paths for explaining why words mean what they do. There are prescriptive paths that bind words to what they've meant historically, and descriptive paths that say words gain meaning based on how they're used by real people. I tend to play at being a descriptive definer - rather that than the alternative of being a language hall monitor - but there are some limiting words that really bring out the grammar alt-right in me."
"Take literally. Not literally, you can't take literally literally, but virtually. At some dark moment in our collective history the word literally, generally understood as a decidedly non-figurative "that thing right there" sort of word, became its own foil. Literally literally came to mean something closer to figuratively or virtually, because that's how idiots young adults on the cutting edge of culture used the word. The prescriptivist in me would jump out and say that's not what literally literally means, just go look in a dictionary! Alas, Marriam-Webster has given in to the decadence and accepts literal's literal and virtual meaning."
"In an opinion heavy on chicken puns, a district court judge ruled on Tuesday that the boneless wings at Buffalo Wild Wings could indeed be called wings. The order, in a lawsuit filed by a Chicago man in 2023, was dripping with skepticism at the claims that the chain was misleading consumers about its boneless wings. Judge John J. Tharp Jr., of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, dismissed claim by Aimen Halim, saying it "has no meat on its bones." The judge upheld Buffalo Wild Wings' argument that the "wing" in the name doesn't refer to the anatomical wing of a chicken, but rather the style of cooking the dish. Forgive my french, but th"
Two prominent approaches explain why words mean what they do: prescriptive views bind words to historical meanings, and descriptive views base meaning on actual usage. The word "literally" shifted from a strictly non-figurative marker to a colloquial intensifier meaning virtually or figuratively, and lexicographers such as Marriam-Webster have recognized that usage. A federal judge, using chicken puns, ruled that Buffalo Wild Wings' "boneless wings" may legally be called wings because "wing" in the name denotes a style of preparation rather than an anatomical wing. The plaintiff's claim was dismissed as lacking substance. The case exemplifies tensions between historical meanings and evolving popular usage.
Read at Above the Law
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