Date: Thu, 30 Oct 1997 12:50:13 -0600

From: "Emerson, Jessie J" jjemerso[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]INGR.COM

Subject: Re: The "n" word and M-W Collegiate Dict



Are you proposing that M_W do this? Including every sense/meaning of

every word (which would seem to be the next logical progression) in

every dialect/community of English would fall outside the scope of M_W's

collegiate dictionary. That would involve a many-volumed work...like

DARE?



Jessie





From Albert E. Krahn:

This is indeed what is in this dictionary, and it is clearly

incomplete.

For example, the final sentence is far too weak. The expression "not

always

intended or taken as offensive" is misleading.

snip

What it all boils down to is context: We need to know who is speaking

to

whom -- and much more -- to discover what meaning might be intended.



akra