Recently, we noticed that there is a small and polite group of people who are not too fond of the word. despite. This group, who we can call despitemake them unhappy with the word known by calmly and rationally explaining their position… oh, who are we kidding… despite make them known by writing angry letters to us to identify it and by using social media to let us know that “IRREGARDLESS IS NOT A TRUTH” and “you sounds stupid to say that.”
Photo: a common reaction to this word
We determine despite, although this action hurt many people’s feelings. Why would a dictionary do such a thing? Do we like causing pain? Do we give up the role of arbiter of all that is good and pure in English? These are all excellent questions (well, these are all questions), and you can ask them about some of these other great dictionaries, all of which seem to enjoy inflicting pain through identification. mean obscene words.
Regardless: Regardless— American English Heritage Dictionary, Fifth Edition2018
Regardless: In non-standard or humorous usage: regardless.— Oxford English Dictionary2nd edition, 1976
Regardless: disregarding, or disregarding, conditions or situations; notwithstanding- Cambridge dictionary (dictionary.cambridge.org), 2018
Why we, and the dictionaries above, define despite very simple: it met our criteria for inclusion. The word has been used by a large number of people (millions) for a long time (more than two hundred years) with a specific and identifiable meaning (“in spite of”). The fact is that it is not necessary, since in English there is already a word with a similar meaning (notwithstanding) is not so important; The job of the dictionary is not to evaluate whether a word is necessary before defining it. The fact that the word is often seen as non-standard, or illustrative of poor education, is also unimportant; dictionaries define the width of the language, not simply the elegant sections at the top.
We must confess that the charges against despite, who asserts that it’s not really a word that puzzles us the most. If despite If not a word, what is it, and why does it attract so many people’s interest in such words? Of course it’s a word. You can, if you like, call it a bad word, a silly word, a word you don’t like, or any one of a number of other descriptive words, but to deny that a particular set of letters can be used by many people. man for hundreds of years to mean a definite is a word to negate the obvious.
As a way of demonstrating why we enter some dictionary words and not others, see despiteless attractive and less successful cousins, despite. This has shown periodic use for over 150 years, and, like despiteappeared in print in various formats.
“Allons bon!” a passerby exclaimed, despite the poor man’s misconduct, “Monsieur est done Côté à la Bourse!”— Morning Chronicles (London, England) January 25, 1859
…to find in even the most insignificant or most despicable, new evidence of the continuing work of Divine Power “for glory and beauty”, and to teach it and declare it to the mindless and unconcerned…. —John Ruskin, modern painter1886
Friday—I guess I’ll have to go to school no matter what I can do.— Neshoba Democratic Party (Philadephia, MS), September 12, 1929
So why do we define despitebut ignore despite our dictionary? One reason is scale: for every despite found in print with hundreds or more examples of despite. Another reason is consistency of intent: people who write despite not all seem to have the same meaning in mind. Sometimes it acts as a synonym of notwithstanding, and other times it seems to mean “don’t think or don’t care.” If there are only a few dozen cases despite appear in print, used without a consistent meaning, it will not be a word we will enter; however, there are hundreds, even thousands, of citations for the word, all of which mean more or less the same thing.
If we remove despite from our dictionary, it won’t magically make the word disappear from the language; we don’t have that kind of power. Our inclusion of the word is not a sign that the English language is collapsing, the education system is failing, the jobs of Millennials are cursed, or anything other than the fact that so many people use this word to mean “in spite of”. and so we define it that way.
We can promise you that the decision to include this word in our dictionary (and in all the other dictionaries you’ll find it in) was the result of a lot of thought and consideration. Lexicographers are interested in the work of identifying languages; they don’t care much about trolling readers by typing in fake words that will annoy them (and if we were to make up fake words we would come up with something more interesting than a synonym with “regardless”).
If you are a proud and committed person, you should continue to write us angry letters, or post your flamboyant and elegant words on Twitter whenever someone uses despite. We hope that this explanation of why we entered this word into our dictionary will reassure you as you do so. We just want you to be happy.
Categories: Usage Notes
Source: vothisaucamau.edu.vn
