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submitted 8 months ago by black0ut@pawb.social to c/memes@lemmy.ml
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Look up the definition. It's changed to include severe injury from electricity.

Prescriptivism vs descriptivism.

The technical definition is as I described above.

It's only been expanded in common dictionaries because the dictionaries practice descriptivism, i.e. they reflect not what is the best definition, but how it's most often used.

In other words, just because it's in the dictionary doesn't mean the word means that in a technical context; it just means that's how it's commonly meant when used in everyday parlance.

this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2024
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