Google as an Open Source Dictionary

I had a moment of lingual anxiety (surely the Germans have a word for this!) looking at something I’d typed. “Hippie” had seemed obviously right but now it seemed queasily wrong. Surely it should be “hippy.” So, I did what any red-blooded webizen would do: I typed each into Google. Hippy: 133,000. Hippie: 315,000. “Hippie” it is.

In the blue bar at the top of the search results page, Google writes “Searched the web for hippie.” Click on the underlined search term and you are taken to its definition in www.dictionary.com where in this case you learn that “hippy” is an acceptable variant of “hippie.” But I don’t need dictionary.com to tell me what’s acceptable. I’ve got 315,000 reasons to think that “hippie” is right.

Sure, this will drag language down. There are 1,550,000 pages that use the non-word “alot.” Clicking on “alot” in Google’s blue stripe takes you to www.acronymfinder.com where you’ll learn that ALOT stands for “Adaptive Large Optics Technologies” and “Airborne Lightweight Optical Tracking.” Nope. “Alot” is a misspelling of “a lot.” Or maybe – language authoritarians stand back! – maybe it’s the new spelling of “a lot.”

Note: I am, in my heart, a language authoritarian.

Categories: Uncategorized dw