joegratz.net

This story from Der Spiegel reports an attempt by McDonald’s to get the word “McJob” (”a low-paid job with few prospects, typically one taken by an overqualified person”) from the Oxford English Dictionary.

“Dictionaries are supposed to be paragons of accuracy. And it this case, they got it completely wrong,” Walt Riker, a Mickey D’s McSpokesman complained to the Associated Press. “It’s a complete disservice and incredibly demeaning to a terrific work force and a company that’s been a jobs and opportunity machine for 50 years.”

I’m sure the city of Shanghai would prefer that its name couldn’t be used as a verb, and Vidkun Quisling probably wasn’t thrilled to see himself nouned. But language develops in a generative way that’s not centrally controlled. Dictionaries accurately report the way people use language, not the way people should use language. If people constantly misuse, say, the word “hopefully,” it takes on the meaning that’s assigned to it, in dictionaries as on the street. Trademark ownership does not confer a right to control the development of the English language.