Dictionary, please

As a teacher in the 21st century, I find myself sometimes lamenting the loss of many of the things that I found comfortable both as a student and as a novice teacher. You know, back in the days before I really knew anything about teaching (or life for that matter).

One of the things that I miss the most is perhaps the most mundane of all - the dictionary. Not that I was ever a huge dictionary user. I mean, I’d use it from time to time, but mostly I was a pretty good natural speller, so referring to the dictionary was never really all that necessary - for that purpose, at least. But I remember, after leaving my Wall Street career and setting out on my own to find my fortune as a copywriter (before teaching came into the picture), one of the first things I bought for my new office was a Webster's paperback dictionary. Having it on my desk, along with a thesaurus (which was NEVER opened) and two books of “words that sell,” I somehow felt legitimate as a writer.

Today, of course, my students (and I, truth be told) rely on the computer to do our “dictionary” work. There are great websites that will allow us to check on the meaning of words if we need to and, of course, almost any word processing program worth a damn has spellcheck (I’ve used it three times already!).  But as a teacher, I’m not really all that worried about the proficiency of spelling, since most of that can be corrected automatically. But what I AM worried about is people losing sight of the meaning of words. I mean, really, isn’t that what a dictionary is. Dictionary.com, my go-to source for all things dictionary-like these days has this to day about what a dictionary is:

“a book, optical disc, mobile device, or online lexical resource (such as Dictionary.com) containing a selection of the words of a language,giving information about their meanings, pronunciations, etymologies,inflected forms, derived forms, etc., expressed in either the same or another language;”

Notice that there is no mention of spelling in this entry. But the word “meaning” is there. And that’s what I worry about - that people are forgetting that what’s important when using a word isn’t really whether you can spell it correctly or not (I mean, in the world of Twitter, does anyone really care about spelling anymore?) but do you know what it means?

Now, why would I be thinking about this topic today, when there is so much more to think about. Because this week is the Republican National Convention. And, amazingly, there seems to be some real problems with several of the keynote speakers and their “interpretation” of the meaning of certain words.

Let’s start with an easy one. The word “write.”  Again, according to Dictionary.com, the word “write”, when used as a verb, has, among others, this meaning:

“to compose or work as a writer or author.”

This definition seems simple enough. Combined with another reference, that having to do with forming words on the surface of some material, I think we get what the word “write” means. In fact, to be honest, I can’t think of anyone I know who would ever have to go look at a dictionary to see what the word “write” means.

So why is this such a foreign concept to several of the Trump clan? I mean, what can be misconstrued about the meaning of this word?  It would seem pretty straightforward.

So can anyone explain how Melania Trump can claim that she “wrote” her own speech and then, when we find out that many of the words came from someone else’s speech (i.e, the current First Lady), we find out that a speech-writer (there’s that word again) actually WROTE the speech after SPEAKING with Mrs. Trump. Now I really don’t care who cribbed from whom, but I do care about understanding the MEANING of words, and if Mrs. Trump thinks that SPEAKING to a speech-writer is actually “writing” the speech, we have a real problem with comprehension here.

Donald Jr. is also guilty of this misuse of the work.  On the one hand, he tells David Muir of ABC News that he “wrote” his own speech, and then he reveals that he used a speech-writer to write the speech. So, Mr. Trump Jr., did you or didn’t you WRITE the speech? Confused as to the question - see the definition of “write” above.

But, clearly this challenge of understanding the correct meaning of words is not limited to the Trumps. Oh no, not at this convention. So before we move ahead, let’s once again ask our friends at Dictionary.com for some help here. This time, the word is “pledge.”

Dictionary.com says:

“a solemn promise or agreement to do or refrain from doing something:”

Now before I proceed, a bit of full disclosure here. I’m not a Republican. Not NOW, at least. At one time I definitely identified more with the Republican ideals than the Democrats (and at one time I worked on Wall Street before moving to the public sector as a teacher). But, with the rise of Newt Gingrich (first) and the Tea Party (second), I rapidly found myself leaning, and then running, toward the Democratic party. Technically, I’m an “independent.” But I guess, not really.

But I digress. The reason I reference the meaning of the word “pledge” is because last night, I sat through what had to be one of the most bizarre (and, truthfully, sad) moments I’ve ever seen in a party convention, and at my age, I’ve seen plenty of conventions.

Last night, I sat through Senator Ted Cruz’ speech - you know the one where he NEVER endorsed the party’s nominee, Donald Trump. Even though a) Donald Trump got more votes than Ted Cruz did and b) Cruz and every other one of the 17 (or 16 or 18 or however many) candidates took a pledge to support the candidate that prevailed after the primary fight was over. Yes, Cruz took a “pledge”. Again, refer to the dictionary entry above if this concept is confusing.

Clearly, Mr. Cruz didn’t fully understand what the word meant, in the context that it was used. Perhaps he was using one of the ALTERNATE definitions of “pledge” such as:

“to drink a health or toast to.”

Perhaps Mr. Cruz thought, when he made that “pledge” on that debate stage all those months ago, that all he had to do was to raise a toast to Mr. Trump and then continue on his way, thinking he was still a candidate for President. Honestly, who the hell knows what was going through Mr. Cruz’ mind as he set about “writing” his speech (do I need to go through that again??).

In any event, clearly the Trumps and Ted Cruz would benefit from a new copy of Mr. Webster’s epic tome - the Dictionary. Perhaps someone will give them each a copy on their birthday. You know, birthday: “the day of a person's birth.”