What is the difference between different brands of dictionaries?
You can write your own dictionary if you want. There are no official authorities on the English language, so dictionaries can choose which words they include. Some dictionaries are prescriptive i.e. they include what words should mean, and how they think the words should be used and others are descriptive i.e. they give the meaning of the words as they are commonly used, even if that meaning is ‘wrong’. For example, a rule can be ‘flouted’ but some people mistakenly use the word ‘flaunt’ instead. A prescriptive dictionary wouldn’t include this, but a descriptive dictionary might, if the word came into common usage in this respect. Dictionaries do often steal from each other! According to Bill Bryson, in ‘Mother Tongue’, the word Dord appeared in one dictionary as meaning density. In fact it should have said D or d (as in the abbreviation). It was changed in a later edition, but appeared in other dictionaries in the meantime, so had to be stolen.
