Merriam-Webster Dictionary Trolls United Airlines Over Definition Of 'Volunteer

function onPlayerReadyVidible(e){'undefined'!=typeof HPTrack&&HPTrack.Vid.Vidible_track(e)}!function(e,i){if(e.vdb_Player){if('object'==typeof commercial_video){var a='',o='m.fwsitesection='+commercial_video.site_and_category;if(a+=o,commercial_video['package']){var c='&m.fwkeyvalues=sponsorship%3D'+commercial_video['package'];a+=c}e.setAttribute('vdb_params',a)}i(e.vdb_Player)}else{var t=arguments.callee;setTimeout(function(){t(e,i)},0)}}(document.getElementById('vidible_1'),onPlayerReadyVidible); United Airlines says it sought volunteers to get bumped from an overbooked flight before having police drag a man off an aircraft on Sunday.Merriam-Webster says the word volunteer doesnt mean what United thinks it does.The dictionary publisher tweeted: 'Volunteer' means 'someone who does something without being forced to do it.' https://t.co/qNAcMyplhZ Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) April 11, 2017 Lookups for volunteer spiked by 1,900 percent after United used the word in a statement on the incident, the dictionary said.The dictionary editors also found the airlines use of the phrase overbook situation objectionable:News accounts of the incident made mention of the fact that the flight was overbooked, but, as dictionary people, we also notice that the airlines statement used overbook adjectivally to modify a noun, a definition that we dont yet include. This use probably shows one way that language evolves: specialized words that are frequently used within an industry sometimes undergo functional shift and may or may not spread to common usage. We volunteer to watch this one.Merriam-Websters editors have been trolling newsmakers lately, defining the wordcomplicit for Ivanka Trump, and doing the same for the word factafter White House aide Kellyanne Conway coined the term alternative facts. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Click here to read full news..