Markup View

Author: Xtifr

Sep 22nd 2011 at 5:01:54 PM

pcw2727: you're attempting to shift the burden of proof.  No one is disputing that the "soft science" meaning has been around for a long time, even ''possibly'' longer than the "not science" meaning.  But a two-year difference in citation dates is pretty much meaningless when it comes to linguistics.  It certainly doesn't establish ''which'' definition was came first (even if that were synonymous with "more correct", which it's not).  It merely establishes that that particular meaning was established by the early eighties.

Basically, you're saying, "you can't prove it's not true, so that proves it is true", with the meaningless addition of that lone 1982 citation which doesn't actually prove anything.  Claiming that ''either'' definition came first or is the One True Meaning is impossible given the facts available to us, and thus, an invalid assertion.  Especially when ''the current OED definition is in direct disagreement with your assertion!''  When it comes to "some random guy's preferred definition" vs. "the definition listed in the OED", I'll take the OED every time.  Even if I think there's a ''chance'' the random guy is right.