Castration is a word, we can agree on that at least.
Its precise medical meaning is, I concede, to remove the gonads. If this is the meaning which Surgo meant when he used it, there would be no debate here. It seems from his context that he meant it in the more general sense, to which I referred in my first linked definition, from a reputable dictionary. It is the existence of this sense of the word which you seemed to be denying, which made me think that you "don't think it should be a word."
I may have been less than absolutely precise in my wording, however I still believe that despite your protestation, you understood my meaning.
I wouldn't classify the Urban Dictionary as a joke dictionary, precisely. It is user-created and user-edited (not professionally, clearly, as is evident on fairly basic inspection which I'd not previously undertaken), but it is not generally populated with definitions which are purposely false -- as such, I would consider a definition there to reflect actual usage; in fact, due to its nature I would expect it in many cases to reflect actual usage more accurately that reputable dictionaries because it defines primarily slang words which don't appear (or have vastly different meanings) in said reputable dictionaries. So it _does_ give descriptive evidence as to the use of a word, as a dictionary should -- it is simply less discriminating than a more reputable dictionary. My referral to it was as much anecdotal as anything else, as it was one of the quickest reference sources I had to hand. Despite the impression I may have given, I don't actually keep links to a wide variety of dictionaries on hand in order to fight fire with fire when someone throws multiple different ones at me in an attempt to support his or her case.
As for your apparent attempt to label, among others, a medical dictionary as "descriptive" (by contesting my categorizing of it as "prescriptive"), I suspect that the publishers would disagree with you. Medical terms require prescriptive definitions in order to maintain their precision, and any reputable medical dictionary is necessarily prescriptive.
For the other dictionaries, the simple and indisputable fact that they have a more restrictive definition than other dictionaries makes them clearly more prescriptive -- except in a case where the broader or additional definitions have fallen out of use, which is certainly not the case here.
Ah, and for the second dictionary I cited, trying to dismiss it based on the concision (or "sparsity", as you say) of its definition is spurious. What minimum length would you suggest for an entry into a dictionary? Shall we then discard as irreputable any which do not meet that arbitrary standard? You'll need a better reason than that.
Since I was not contesting the definition of gonad, it was indeed irrelevant. Had I been arguing that the definitions from oot's links proved my case, they would be relevant. However, my case rested on definitions not restricted to the removal of gonads, which I have no problem defining in their medical fashion for the purposes of this discussion.
As for your rhetoric, your constant assumption that you are right and your opponents are wrong is only to be expected, but your tendency to refer to them as ignorant is unoriginal and quickly irritating. Are you trying to aggravate me or something?
I've since (in another subthread, now) given what cites I've been able to find online fairly quickly to indicate the meaning of castration as Freud used it, which it has taken on in acceptable use since. I believe this addresses the points you've raised |
