Editor,
Brad Lord-Leutwyler's Feb. 22 column echoes a sentiment that many people, myself included, feel; namely, that heroism is misunderstood.
I would like to take issue with his characterization of lexicographers as "whores" for not encouraging language that is up to his standards.
Dictionaries vary their approaches to usage. Some are more prescriptive (such as Random House), while others (Webster) are more descriptive in their approach to cataloguing the language. Few, if any, words keep a single meaning and new words are formed every day.
A quick glance at the column in question reveals a list of words whose meanings have changed - "drove," "dude" and "kids" - as well as new words coined within the past few decades, such as "jocks," "firefighters" and "video." Aren't these real words that might have sounded awkward, if not substandard, to people of ages past?
Then again, perhaps Lord-Leutwyler is right after all. Otherwise we might allow the word "whore" to refer to, say, an attorney who weaseled his way into getting a lottery scholarship intended for disadvantaged students.
Dan Parvaz
Linguistics graduate student
