Dictionaries are one of the most important tools writers have at their fingertips, besides a good style guide. They not only tell us what words mean; they also tell us the history of those words, how to pronounce them, and how they are used in different contexts. Further, each dictionary uses its own set of labels that give specific information on how words are used, such as “informal” and “slang.” As Georgia Southern University professor, writer, and editor Richard Nordquist explained in an article for ThoughtCo, labels and usage notes indicate “… particular limitations on the use of a word, or particular contexts or registers [or how we use language differently in different circumstances, whether in speaking, writing, or even sign language].” Over the years, these labels have expanded in line with our changing language.
First, let’s touch briefly on the history of dictionaries and how labels came to be. According to Oxford Dictionaries, the earliest dictionaries were nothing more than “glossaries that translated Latin words into Old English, the form of English spoken before about 1100 AD.” The first monolingual dictionaries appeared in about 1600 and mostly defined the “hard words” in English. By the 1800s, dictionaries started to expand their entries to include pronunciation, word origin, and parts of speech. In the 19th and 20th centuries, they became more inclusive and began to cover “… types of language that had not previously been considered appropriate, for example slang, regional words, or technical jargon.”
Today, dictionaries focus on how words are used in the real world. Most modern dictionaries have moved away from being prescriptive – stating how words “should” be used – and are descriptive – meaning they simply describe current usage. Most dictionaries are now online, which means they can offer even more, like multimedia and interactive content. But their basic purpose is still the same: to tell us what words mean.
Of course, different dictionaries vary in the number and types of labels used. In his analysis of Samuel Johnson’s 1755 “Dictionary of the English Language” in the “English Diachronic Pragmatics” journal, University of Milan professor Giovanni Iamartino points out that usage labels and notes have been around almost as long as dictionaries have. But labels in Johnson’s and other early dictionaries were more pragmatic, meaning they were more about the word than the speaker and how they were using it. As Iamartino puts it, “… in the earlier phases such labels and notes played a stigmatizing role, or at least were monitors of correct usage, [while] in modern lexicography their function is simply descriptive.”
So now let’s look at some examples of dictionary labels and usage notes. For purposes of this discussion, we’ll focus mainly on two well-known dictionaries – Oxford and Merriam-Webster – but we’ll also touch on some others.
Merriam-Webster uses three types of status labels “… to signal that a word or a sense of a word is not part of the standard vocabulary of English”: temporal, regional, and stylistic. Its temporal labels include “obsolete” and “archaic.”
“Obsolete” means the word hasn’t been used in that sense since 1755, like “perdu,” meaning “a soldier assigned to extremely hazardous duty,” which carries the “obsolete” label in its entry. If the thing being described is obsolete, Merriam-Webster will note that in the definition itself, like one of the definitions of “catapult,” which reads “an ancient military device for hurling missiles.” And the entry for “catapult” also has different, non-obsolete definitions listed too.
“Archaic,” on the other hand, is used for “a word or sense once in common use [but] found today only sporadically or in special contexts,” like “goody,” meaning “a usually married woman of lowly station.”
Regional labels, as the name implies, indicate where a word or term is used. You may also see “chiefly” before some of these labels, to indicate that the word has limited usage outside of that region, And some words have double regional labels, meaning they are used in both areas. For example, “banquette,” when used to mean “sidewalk,” carries the label “Southern U.S.”; and “dinkum,” meaning “authentic” or “genuine,” includes the label “Australia and New Zealand.”
Merriam-Webster uses the stylistic labels “disparaging,” “offensive,” “obscene,” and “vulgar” for “… words or senses that in common use are intended to hurt or shock or that are likely to give offense even when they are used without such an intent.” For example, the entry for “lame,” in the sense of “unable or only partially able to use a body part and especially a limb,” includes the double label “dated, now usually offensive” and a whole usage paragraph to explain why it is problematic. And another stylistic label is “nonstandard” for “…words or senses that are disapproved by many but that have some currency in reputable contexts.” A great example of nonstandard usage is the word “irregardless,” which we discussed in Episode 954.
Besides these three main categories, Merriam-Webster sometimes uses a subject label or guide phrase to explain how and when a word is specifically used. For example, the entry for “antimagnetic,” meaning “having a balance unit composed of alloys that will not remain magnetized” includes the guide phrase “of a watch.” And this dictionary will also sometimes include a usage note for “function” words – like prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections – that are hard to define and carry little meaning in and of themselves. For example, the entry for “wow,” when used as an interjection, includes the note “used to express strong feeling, such as pleasure or surprise,” which is more of a description than a definition.
The other “Big Daddy” of dictionaries, the Oxford English Dictionary, sorts its usage labels into three categories: register, region, and subject. Its register labels are extensive and more detailed than in other dictionaries. The temporal labels “archaic” – “used in old-fashioned or historical contexts” – and “dated” – “old-fashioned, but used within the last 100 years” – fall into this category. Like Merriam-Webster, Oxford’s register labels include “derogatory” and “offensive.” But also on the list are several types of slang – “vulgar,” “military,” “nautical,” and even “rhyming” and “theatrical” – and some that are more culturally based, like “dialect,” “euphemistic,” “humorous,” “rare,” and “ironic,” among others.
Oxford uses region labels similarly to Merriam-Webster but does not call out words used in two different regions. Its subject labels – such as “art,” “ecology,” “finance,” “medicine,” are very specific and can help dictionary users figure out jargon and context. The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary of Academic English includes a long list of labels that indicate academic subject areas, including “anatomy,” “biology,” “economics,” “engineering,” “finance,” “mathematics,” and my favorite – “linguistics.”
In contrast to Merriam-Webster and Oxford, the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary has a shorter list of labels but does include some interesting ones not found in other dictionaries, like “child’s word/expression,” “female” and “male” (for words like “starlet” and “effeminate”), “polite usage,” and “approving” and “disapproving” (for words like “feisty” and “newfangled”).
So next time you crack open – or more likely, click on – a dictionary, pay attention to any labels and how they can help guide your usage. You might learn something new!