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I was speaking in comments with a friend @bigskykilroy (*I only know him on steemit*) about his new word spinnery.    He used it to refer to the crazy spin that mainstream media tries to put on everything.    He said an interesting thing about the word now being used 3 times and if it could reach 5 it would become a word because that is a rule.   LOL.

This reminded me of something that happened here sometime within the past month or so.   I don't remember exactly where or I'd go find an exact example.   It was on a post on a controversial topic (*fairly certain one of my anti-racism posts*) and it was clear the person replied simply to try to perform an attack on me.     It had its share of ad hominems, and other logical fallacies and I could tell that someone likely approached a person they know and said something like "*Look what this guy is saying about racism, care to say anything?*".    This conclusion was drawn when I watched who the person had been interacting with and they didn't interact with me any other time than this out of the blue comment.

One of the points they decided to attack was that a word I used was not a word.    I answered their points at length and they did not counter, but it is that one point about WORDS that I want to talk about here.

My response to it not being a word went SOMETHING like this without any responses it was me posing questions and making statements:

"*Who says it is not a word?*"
"*You couldn't find it in a dictionary?*"
"*Can you tell what the word should mean?*"   (it was easy to tell but I don't remember at this point)
"*So if you can understand the meaning and the purpose is communication then it seems like it succeeded in communicating my thought.   Wouldn't that make it a word?*"
"*With that said resorting to the dictionary becomes nothing more than an appeal to authority fallacy*."

I have not been a spelling Nazi for a very long time.    I really stopped doing it when someone said "*We should make an electronic magazine*" back in the early 90s and I said "*Sure, I can write the subscription handling software, etc.   I also wouldn't mind writing a story or two*".      Then suddenly I was the editor.   That guy didn't really do much other than stating an idea.    The idea was in response to an essay I wrote for friends (*not a class*).   I believe the title was "*Fuck The Rut Let's Go Off Road*" and was along the lines of asking why people always say "*When I graduate*", "*When I grow up*", etc.    I asked why people were waiting to do things they could try to do now.    I digress.

As editor I realized that I didn't know anyone with perfect spelling.    This included the would be spelling Nazis.     Throughout my life I have seen forums, reddit posts, and other places where people fixate on spelling.     I had a realization at one point.

What is the purpose of words?

Communication.

What is that?

Trying to convey thoughts and concepts from one mind to one or more other minds.

As such, if you know what word they tried to spell did it actually accomplish it's intended purpose?

To me the answer to that is yes.

If I was writing some extremely formal letter I might worry about spelling.   Outside of such cases I consider fixating on spelling as a very petty thing to do.    It also totally misses the point of what words are for in the first place.

People can get so hung up on arguing about spelling that the original discussion is gone, and an opportunity lost.   The only gain I can see from it is someone attempting to flex their muscular ego and for a moment feel like they got one up on someone.

What I realized recently is that when a person says "That is not a word" it is more or less the same as the spelling argument.   Did they know what you were meaning with that word?   If so, then yes it is a word.

In order for it to not be a word it needs to be incomprehensible and fail at the purpose of communication.

That brings us to dictionaries.   They are not the be all end all of what constitutes a word.    That simply turns them into a huge appeal to authority fallacy.    In reality, all a dictionary is seems to be a tool that can be used to teach you the meaning of words that may not make sense to you, or that you do not know.    In fact, dictionaries come in many sizes.   Some have more words than others.    The definition can also vary quite a bit between dictionaries.

Dictionaries are a tool.   They are not an authority.

The key to any exchange should be communication.   Do you understand what someone is trying to share with you, and do they in turn understand you?

All other issues are secondary and mostly petty and distractions.    The only time this may not be the case is if there is a formal reason for flagging spelling and words that seem made up on the spot.

With that said...   I'm going to speak to my dad, who passed away many years ago.

"*Dad to your 'ain't' isn't a word statements...*"     Yes, it is.   It is pretty clear what it is intended to mean.   Whether the dictionary likes it or some formal group wanting recognition of their authority doesn't like it is irrelevant.    If you can infer and understand it's meaning then it IS a word.

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