dictionaries

     Dictionaries, I am fond of dictionaries. Everything that has ever been written is in the dictionary. The people who write dictionaries, called lexicographers, rely on usage to decide what to put in the dictionary. If someone coins a new word, and it becomes popular, it is included in the next edition of the dictionary. You may see evidence of this when you use the dictionary to decide which word to use, particularly in the case of commonly misused words. If enough people "switch" or exchange one word for another, the dictionary may report, in its next edition, that this is now current usage. An American dictionary rarely makes recommendations--it merely reports on common usage, in true democratic fashion.
     You may sometimes come across a piece of writing that is for the most part carefully and correctly done ( precise and understandable ), in which the author at last uses an unusual word, taking the dictionary as a style guide--which it isn't. The unusual word may be used awkwardly, or used not taking into account its precise meaning ( some English teachers have it that there are no synonyms ). The sentence containing the offending word is awkward and difficult to understand, because the author has not learned the "word" through usage ( reading, and lots of it ), but from using a thesaurus or dictionary to avoid seeming repetitive. The definition given by a dictionary or thesaurus in a few words, rarely takes account of the fine nuances of usage--and we find the author annoying. Dictionaries are perfect for spelling, and for looking up the meaning of words that you are reading--but they aren't style manuals, and shouldn't be used as usage guides.