The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #79107   Message #1431323
Posted By: Gurney
10-Mar-05 - 04:10 AM
Thread Name: BS: What means bigot?
Subject: RE: BS: What means bigot?
Wolfgang, you write English very well indeed, but if you are trying to define ANY word in English, you are flogging a dead horse. (I can point out three meanings of 'flogging' and five meanings of 'horse'. See Wordweb below.)
The language is in a constant state of transition, and any defination that you find will be of date when someone uses a word that they invent or adapt to a concept for which they have no referent. The 'new' usage is immediately adopted by the media and given legitimacy by usage, and also because the term is sometimes more obvious than the original word for that concept was.
I was watching a US cop show on TV the other night, and a suspect there was talking 'hip-hop'. Even the cops interviewing him didn't fully understand him, and as an English-English speaker, I understood perhaps one word in four. It was English, Horatio, but not as we know it.
Could I suggest that you download a free dictionary called Wordweb, which sits on your toolbar for instant reference. In my opinion it is things like this that makes the web worth having.