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Article: Dictionaries change even slower than church.(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- National Catholic Reporter
- Article date:
- December 17, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 National Catholic Reporter. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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During Advent last year, my twin called. She was fishing for gift ideas. I told her what I'd told her many times before, that I'd always wanted a dictionary from my twin the writer. I could hear her eyes roll.
Nevertheless, last year, under the Christmas tree with a card declaring, "Ya get what ya ask for" was a 1998 Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. The dictionary was labeled as "celebrating a century of new words." It had added euro, feng shui, right-size, search engine, URL this past year.
I used my new dictionary without much thought until I looked up laity. To my surprise, I found that layman is "a person who is not a member of the clergy" ...