Quote:
Originally posted by Grojlach:
While we're on the subject of nitpicking, is "consciencious" even a word? I thought it was spelled "conscientious", and I'm just wondering why someone would even bother using big words when they don't know how to spell them correctly. [img]tongue.gif[/img] 
My dictionary denies the correctness or even the existence of "consciencious", but when I perform a google-search on the word, I actually still get 14,800 (!) results. Is it just spelled differently in the US then, or is it really that often mis-spelled, relatively speaking? 
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Firstly, a word does not have to be contained in a normative document such as a dictionary to be defined as a word. The presence or abscence of any word from any dictionary is not a cast-iron deciding factor [img]smile.gif[/img]
Secondly, yes - that word is often 'misspelled'. It's quite a common occurrence in words containing a "sh" sound that a native speaker will be unsure about the exact combination of letters used. That's the way it is in England, anyway. I don't know about a 'US spelling'.
Thirdly, back to dictionaries - Again I have to stress that they are not the be-all and end-all of definitions. Ask any native English speaker what the word "livid" means, and 95% of them will give you a definition along the lines of "terribly angry". Ask them to describe a livid person and they will describe someone whose face is flushed with rage and anger. What do dictionaries say about livid? That it means "
pale faced with anger."
So what does livid
mean? Anyone who subscribed to the "dictionaries are always right" line of thought would tell you that "pale faced with anger" is correct (or if an American dictionary ahs a different definition, then whatever that is). Anyone who is actually concerned with the usage of a word would tell you that livid means what speakers use it to mean. This, of course, is just one example amongst thousands.
I used to think of dictionaries as being a final arbiter of correctness too, but my education, far from confirming that in my mind, actually turned me completely around. Now I see dictionaries as being far less important than I ever would have thought 10 years ago.
Oh, and another point - in spite of the fact she spelled it incorrectly, you still understood what she meant. This does not invalidate her use of the word. rather it confirms that preceise spellings and pronunciations are of far less importance than we would deem, as the primary use of language - effective communication - was achieved successfully. [img]smile.gif[/img]