That's simply not possible to do with dictionaries. (Gaming)

by Funkmon , Friday, June 03, 2016, 00:10 (3096 days ago) @ Vortech
edited by Funkmon, Friday, June 03, 2016, 00:16

There are zero current prescriptivist dictionaries. Prescription is fine, in my opinion, which is one of the reasons I stick with American Heritage (along with my personal association with a few of the linguists working on it and on the usage panel, so I understand how it works). American Heritage is the only major dictionary that holds onto an opinion, and has a usage panel who suggest what to actually do.

Here's what happens with American Heritage, which again, is the single holdout among all dictionaries in prescription, which is limited to only a few hundred entries.

health·y (hĕlthē)

adj. health·i·er, health·i·est
1. Possessing good health: a healthy child.

2. Conducive to good health; healthful: healthy air.

3. Indicative of sound, rational thinking or frame of mind: a healthy attitude.

4. Sizable; considerable: a healthy portion of peas; a healthy raise in salary.

adv.
So as to promote one's health; in a healthy way: If you eat healthy, you'll probably live longer.

healthi·ly adv.

healthi·ness n.

Synonyms: healthy, wholesome, sound2, hale1, robust, well2
These adjectives refer to a state of good physical health. Healthy stresses the absence of disease or infirmity and is used of whole organisms as well as their parts: a healthy baby; flossed daily to promote healthy gums. Wholesome suggests a state of good health associated with youthful vitality or clean living: "In truth, a wholesome, ruddy, blooming creature she was" (Harriet Beecher Stowe).
Healthy and wholesome are often extended to conditions or choices deemed conducive to good health: a healthy lifestyle; wholesome foods. Sound emphasizes freedom from injury, imperfection, or impairment: "The man with the toothache thinks everyone happy whose teeth are sound" (George Bernard Shaw).
Hale stresses freedom from infirmity, especially in elderly persons, while robust emphasizes healthy strength and ruggedness: "He is pretty well advanced in years, but hale, robust, and florid" (Tobias Smollett).
Well indicates absence of or recovery from illness: felt well enough to make the trip.

Usage Note: Some people insist on maintaining a distinction between the words healthy and healthful. In this view, healthful means "conducive to good health" and is applied to things that promote health, while healthy means "possessing good health," and is applied solely to people and other organisms. Accordingly, healthy people have healthful habits. However, healthy has been used to mean "healthful" since the 1500s, as in this example from John Locke's Some Thoughts Concerning Education: "Gardening ... and working in wood, are fit and healthy recreations for a man of study or business." In fact, the word healthy is far more common than healthful when modifying words like diet, exercise, and foods, and healthy may strike many readers as more natural in many contexts. Certainly, both healthy and healthful must be considered standard in describing that which promotes health.

So this most prescriptive of dictionaries holds the view that many prescriptive rules, like healthful or shall versus will, are dumb. This one didn't involve the usage panel.

Yes, even literally the most prescriptive dictionary uses common usage to determine what should and should not occur in language. When they use a panel, it's literally a panel. They get a bunch of English teachers, linguists, writers, et cetera, and say "is this all right usage?" and they say if it is or not. Then, the dictionary sticks it in a usage note at the bottom. Here's one with information on how the panel thinks.

Usage Note: Transpire has been used since the mid-1700s in the sense "to become publicly known," as in Despite efforts to hush the matter up, it soon transpired that the colonels had met with the rebel leaders. While this usage has been considered standard for generations, it appears to be on shaky ground and could be headed for obsolescence. In our 2001 survey, 48 percent of the Usage Panel rejected it in the sentence quoted above. It might be better to use a synonym such as become known, leak out, or get around. · The more common use of transpire meaning "to happen or occur" has a more troubled history. Though it dates at least to the beginning of the 1800s, language critics have condemned it for more than one hundred years as both pretentious and unconnected to the word's original meaning, "to give off as vapor." But there is considerable evidence that resistance to this sense of transpire is weakening. In our 1966 survey, only 38 percent of the Usage Panel found it acceptable; in 1988, 58 percent accepted it in the sentence All of these events transpired after last week's announcement. In 2001, 66 percent accepted the same sentence. Nonetheless, many of the Panelists who accepted the usage also remarked that it was pretentious or pompous. This usage is easily avoided by saying happen, occur, or take place instead.

So, as we can see, even this most prescriptive of dictionaries uses the opinion of people to determine if a word is correct. And you know what? 100% of the time, the incorrect usage is listed in the definitions at the top of the entry, because it occurs.

The American Heritage dictionary was created because there were no prescriptive dictionaries on the market. When Webster's Third came out, it dropped its perceived prescription, widely publicized the inclusion of "ain't," and was equally as widely disregarded among the conservative language users. They would continue to use Webster's Second, of course conveniently ignoring that Webster's Second also included "ain't" and was a descriptive dictionary with comments like "slang" or "regional," though it also used "improper". American Heritage found a niche in the market, and they published this descriptive dictionary with usage notes to pacify conservatives.

Cheapley used Merriam Webster's collegiate. This is descriptive. Here's a list (complete, afaik) of current general, unabridged, dictionaries of English.

• Merriam-Webster - descriptive
  
• Collins - descriptive
  
• Oxford Dictionary of English - descriptive
  
• Oxford English Dictionary - descriptive
  
• Cambridge dictionary - descriptive
  
• Chamber's dictionary - descriptive
  
• American Heritage - descriptive
  
• Random House Webster's - descriptive
  
• Webster's New World - descriptive
  
• Oxford Canadian, American and Australian dictionaries - descriptive
  
• wordnik.com - descriptive

So can you see the problem with this? Using dictionaries as prescription means tryhard isn't a word, when it clearly is. People use it. It also means wang is a correct word for penis. It means cow is a correct word for a woman. It means girl is a correct word for boy. It means literally means figuratively. It means bemuse means to be amused. It means Xbox does not exist. Using dictionaries as an in any way reliable indicator of prescription is simply not possible.

Dictionaries literally cannot properly be used how you want to use them. They weren't designed for it, and they can't be done that way.

What you want is a style guide. Dictionaries were never what you want them to be. That was always the domain of style guides, the best and most influential being written in the early twentieth century. Beware, though, as you'll be saying octopodes, panino, and balCONy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style