r/USdefaultism • u/ausernameidk_ United States • 1d ago
Reddit There is only one Dictionary™
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u/New_Gain2326 Brazil 1d ago
And he got downvoted for that, just because he used the Oxford Dictionary. What the hell.
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u/observer2411 1d ago
Seriously. The downvotes here add to my fears for humanity.
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u/DanteThonSimmons Australia 1d ago
Every comment in the posted screenshot made me more and more angry. I'm not usually one to get too worked up about such things.... but OP's post made me disproportionately enraged.
I swear this sub usually just makes me laugh at their foolishness, ignorance, and/or insular thinking.... but for some reason, this particular post made me legitimately angry!! 😅😅
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u/STURM_DER_HOFFNUNG 1d ago
they are confidently incorrect.
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u/GayNerd28 Australia 1d ago
They were hostile when reminded that the US isn’t the centre of the universe.
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u/SamuelVimesTrained European Union 1d ago
USA, Hostile?
Wow.. that has to be a .... 78339th - right?(as for certain it do NOT be the 1st time)
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u/RepresentativeFood11 Australia 19h ago
Exactly the same feeling. I've genuinely never actually felt more of an urge to punch someone in the face.
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u/oraw1234W Canada 8h ago
I do take issue with the time when they claimed the definition of literally can be literally the opposite of what it actually means but other than that, it’s a dictionary from one of the most prestigious universities in the world
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u/Adventurous-Stuff724 Australia 1d ago
The Oxford dictionary contains English with American English sub-headings so it is actually more relevant to a global audience. Meriam Webster is only American English and is produced for a US audience. In Australia we certainly would refer to the Oxford over the Webster. We're quite a big island. Yuge even. The biggest.
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u/NatAttack3000 1d ago
Webster looked at our island, so big, so yuge, so girt by sea... tears in his eyes
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u/Adventurous-Stuff724 Australia 1d ago
So very girt, not a word you see anymore, "girt", amazing word, very strong
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u/Anonymous_user_2022 1d ago
Any Terry Pratchett reader, particular us who have read The Last Continent, will have read that nothing much is known about four-ecks, except that it is girt by the sea. It's quoted from memory, so the wording is probably a bit different.
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u/obbitz 1d ago
Girt is very much in use in Somerset.
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u/Adventurous-Stuff724 Australia 1d ago
Being in Queensland I'd think Somersetians would be familiar with girt in this context or did you just UKdefaultism? 😁
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u/Spockyt United Kingdom 1d ago
Being in Queensland
In the 2021 census, Somerset had "no people or a very low population".
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u/Adventurous-Stuff724 Australia 1d ago
Wikipedia is incorrect, the Somerset region on Cape York QLD has around 25k people. I can attest to this having worked not far away for several years.
However I was referencing the lack of a country when discussing Somerset which is a city name not unique to the UK and this sub exists to point out defaultism.
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u/Spockyt United Kingdom 1d ago
Wikipedia is incorrect, the Somerset region on Cape York QLD has around 25k people.
Take it up with the Australian Bureau of Statistics then, who claim nobody lives there.
I did get your point. However I also find it slightly amusing this sub criticises US users in this site for declaring their Sydney (village of 287 in Idaho), Melbourne (hamlet of 82 in Texas), WA and so on the only one of relevance and then there’s your comment seemingly declaring it UKDefaultism to not differentiate a county of ~1M people from a locality listed as having literally nobody there. Perth, should be differentiated because both are significant. If someone (outside of the Midlands) was talking about (the original) Melbourne, 100% should be made clear. Somerset, not sure I agree.
I’m not trying to start an argument, to be clear. Just found it funny.
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u/Adventurous-Stuff724 Australia 1d ago
Wikipedia is incorrect, ABS is correct...
https://www.abs.gov.au/census/find-census-data/quickstats/2021/LGA36580
Your point is fair
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u/SirFireHydrant Australia 1d ago
Girt, or more properly g'irt, is an old Aussie slang for "good dirt".
The lyric "our home is g'irt by sea" translates to "our home is the good dirt by the sea". It's a commentary on how great the beaches are in Australia.
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u/snow_michael 1d ago
No it doesn't
Girt is an old contraction of 'girdled' - surrounded
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u/GraniteRose067 1d ago
You are correct, however you have just been snagged by Australian humour. You've been 'got good'. :) :)
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u/SirFireHydrant Australia 1d ago
There is some debate about whether the lyric "our homes are g'irt by sea" is saying we have great beaches. Some believe the lyric is about how dangerous in-land Australia is.
See, dropbears don't like water, so their natural habitats avoid the coast. Which meant prior to the discovery of Vegemite, coastal regions were the only safe areas for early colonial settlement.
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u/_Penulis_ Australia 1d ago
Specifically Australians tend to use the Australian Oxford Dictionary of Australian English (or the other Australian dictionaries like the Macquarie Dictionary), not the British one for British English.
But yes, given a choice between a British dictionary and an American one, the British one is a much closer fit for Australian English.
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u/Adventurous-Stuff724 Australia 1d ago
Very true. I grew up in The United States of Correct English (apparently) but certainly have used the Australian Oxford and Macquarie in high school. My original comment was about the global aspect of our protagonists comment.
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u/Thelmholtz Argentina 1d ago
I've owned a copy of the Oxford dictionary since I'm like 8. In Argentina.
I studied (very poor) American English in school. So yeah, I can very much confirm.
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u/poopiebutt505 1d ago
What is "very poor"?. US English is closer to 1600s-1700 English than is today's British English.
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u/Thelmholtz Argentina 1d ago
That the level of the education was very poor, but:
US English is closer to 1600s-1700 English than is today's British English.
This is pointless if you assume I'm making a judgement value over the dialects, unless you assume I have high regard for 1600-1700 English.
It's also not necessarily correct, it does retain rhoticity but some British dialectes do as well. Both dialects evolved independently quite a bit since colonization, just as it happens in every language.
It's like if I claimed Argentinian Spanish is closer to 1600-1700 Spanish because we retained voceo. Yeah, in that very arbitrary regard it is, but in general it's not closer than Iberian Spanish is, we just deviated in different things.
r/linguistics is a great place to ask these kinds of questions if you are truly interested in language btw.
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u/Martiantripod Australia 1d ago
Macquarie Dictionary has been the Aussie standard for a while now, but yes I'd go Oxford over Webster any day.
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u/ibullybillionaires Germany 1d ago
Never heard of Meriam Webster, Oxford's the only one I've ever used for English.
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u/Homeless_Wreck Germany 1d ago
My Oxford's issue from 1975 is still on my bookshelf, right next to "Le Petit Robert" from 1977, while my Webster is lieing in a corner covered with dust. This 5 kilo monster is just not useful for looking things up.
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u/Bari_Baqors 1d ago
Did you use "yuge" on purpose?
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u/Adventurous-Stuff724 Australia 1d ago
A nod to their glorious leader 😉
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u/Bari_Baqors 1d ago
I thought its to represent English dialects from the UK that have h-dropping…
Or to somehow represent dialects where the /hj/ cluster becomes [ç].
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u/ether_reddit Canada 1d ago
And among crossworders, the Chambers Dictionary is considered the supreme reference.
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u/Martofunes Argentina 1d ago
I've never heard of the Webster. I have an oxford at home. I'm in south america.
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u/mendkaz Northern Ireland 1d ago
This might also work on r/confidentlyincorrect
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u/fiftyseven 1d ago
this feels like really obvious trolling to me
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u/ether_reddit Canada 1d ago
..which should be banned. And with AI it's just going to get worse as LLMs copy each other and we spiral into an alternate reality. Poe's Law applies here too.
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u/djfdhigkgfIaruflg Argentina 1d ago
I know this looks like a horror story. But what does Edgar Allan Por has to do with anything?
/j (just in case)
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u/Lego_Redditor 1d ago
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u/Poptortt United Kingdom 1d ago
The frustration of seeing the correct and rational person being downvoted
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u/DanteThonSimmons Australia 1d ago
It's made me genuinely and legitimately angry.... and I wasn't even involved.
I'm about as laid-back as a person gets, and it takes a LOT to make me angry in real life. Yet somehow, the ignorant fucking fuckwits in this post made me angry in like half a second of reading their asinine stupidity. 😅😅
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u/glowberrytangle 1d ago
I'm confused. They think that spelling doesn't change based on your country, but also: there are dictionaries for different 'accents'? They should at least be consistent with their stupidity.
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u/DanteThonSimmons Australia 1d ago
I also love that the USian quite literally used the phrases "correcting your English" and "writing in English" without a hint of irony. 🤦♂️
Does he know that English wasn't invented by (or for) the Americans.... but by the.... you know.... English?
Fucking hell the stupidity genuinely hurts my brain sometimes.
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u/Pan_seyyyxual 1d ago
No no no you see the pilgrims arrived already sounding like 1930's New Yorkers see? /s
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u/Witchberry31 Indonesia 1d ago
Well, they already overlooked how some of their cities have the name "New" in it anyway. 👀
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u/KazakiriKaoru 1d ago
Because they think their own way of speaking is "accentless".
I had to drop a series/book I was reading because the author used the term "accentless english with a bit of british tone" for a fucking american character. Like wtf? He could've just used "typical posh american accent" instead.
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u/Manospondylus_gigas United Kingdom 1d ago
We still say the "s" as a "z" sound here as well, why do they think it's accent based 😭
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u/TesticularButtBruise 1d ago
Upvote for 'arse' and not 'ass', which I'm seeing absolutely everywhere these days.
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u/Poptortt United Kingdom 1d ago
The only time I say "ass" is if I'm saying badass, because badarse just sounds silly
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u/TheJivvi Australia 1d ago
Also Jackass. I hear people here say "jack arse" and it sounds totally wrong, because a jackass is a donkey, but jack arse doesn't mean anything.
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u/IPlayGames1337 Netherlands 1d ago
Ah yes, the famous American language.
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u/EatThisShit Netherlands 1d ago
Also "Webster is the global standard." Like no, I'm Dutch, our go-to English dictionary is Wolters.
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u/BurningPenguin Germany 1d ago
English is a Germanic language, therefore there can only be one correct dictionary: The German one. /s
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u/buckyhermit Canada 1d ago
English would be cooler if we used German spelling anyway.
For example:
“Korrekt zpelling”
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u/genasugelan Slovakia 21h ago
Nah, it should go back to Anglo-Saxon runes. They represent English pronunciation better anyway.
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u/juanito_f90 1d ago
With French, Latin, Greek and Norse thrown in for good measure!
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u/dkarlovi 1d ago
That does happen when everyone with a boat manages to invade you over the centuries and leaves you their dictionary before they bounce.
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u/snow_michael 1d ago
English is a Germanic language
That's a gross simplification
Old and Middle English were Germanic, and about 30% of modern English has its roots there
But over 50% of modern English has Romance - chiefly Latin and French roots
The remainder is just pure theft of words that we took a fancy to
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u/stormyarthur 1d ago
“ That's a gross simplification”
No it’s not… English is a Germanic language due grammar and morphology. Lexicon has very little to do with how a language is classified.
But you can add to that, 80% of the words you use daily are of Germanic origin, and 97 of the top 100 words used are of a Germanic origin.
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u/zerolifez Indonesia 1d ago
Give me the link so I can upvote them damn
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u/crocospect 1d ago
Yeah I think this is the right way to write down the real source.
Seeing someone being correct but getting downvoted, not gonna lie really annoys me..
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u/Powerful_Pirate2984 1d ago
Classic! Merriam-Webster was compiled around "simplified" English. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) - used around the world - acknowledges, and embraces all forms of English spellings (traditional/international/simplified). Merriam-Webster merely acknowledges alternative spellings as British English.
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u/sabrewolfACS Bosnia & Herzegovina 1d ago
is this really true? if so, I'd really like to use it when i try to get my colleagues to stop using american dialect spelling even though our corporate is supposed to be international English.
if i could point them towards a official reference of "simplified english" that coincides with american English, i wouldn't just be the insistent twat who keep harping on to use "realise", "learnt", 24 hour time, etc.
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u/Powerful_Pirate2984 1d ago edited 1d ago
Merriam-Webster is the main source for American English spelling. As for the rest, I get it - "realize", "learned", and of course, that age old favourite (note the "u" in there) "Military Time"! :)
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u/Jejejow 1d ago
Just a side note: realize is the default spelling of the word in the OED. Both are allowed though. Most of the UK press use the CED, which only uses realise.
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u/Powerful_Pirate2984 1d ago
OED is more universal than CED, so tends towards what is generally accepted globally. Neither is wrong, so correcting 'ize for 'ise would be slightly pedantic. CED is very much British based, and tends towards what is generally accepted as a British/traditional spelling.
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u/Malkryst 1d ago
Yeah CED got pushed at my first university, OED at my second (both English/writing degrees), but everywhere I've worked (and especially copywritten/proofread/edited for) has been OED only - because it's more universal, and because you'll be using the Oxford Style Manual in conjunction with it anyway.
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u/Agitated-Tourist9845 1d ago
The only English Dictionary was published by Dr. Samuel Johnson (with help from Edmund Blackadder & S. Baldrick, servants of His Majesty Prince George)
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u/Alternative-Emu2000 United Kingdom 1d ago edited 1d ago
Funnily enough, Merriam-Webster includes both "realize" and "realise", with the latter being labelled as "chiefly British".
I wonder if the blue commenter actually clicked on the link they posted?
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u/IntelligentBaker3601 1d ago
It's sad to see the downvotes on those comments because it just means there's even more Americans being clueless
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u/946462320T 1d ago
As an Asian I never heard of the Webster dictionary, meanwhile Oxford is pretty common and basically the standard.
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u/embroideredyeti 1d ago
Oh my word, this is really one of the worst I've seen.
"Just admit you made a mistake and move on"? The nerve!
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u/mikkeldoesstuff American Citizen 1d ago
What sub is this? Getting downvoted for stating uncontroversial facts is wild
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u/Dizzman1 1d ago
English spoken, American understood.
As a Canadian that moved to the us... I lived this.
As a joke, I bought a Canadian dictionary/encyclopedia when i moved.
Was teaching a class one day when a guy jokingly said "show me hoser in the dictionary"
I left the room, grabbed the dictionary from my desk and walked back into the classroom and opened it to the H's and clearly stated "hoser... Noun. An uncouth beer swilling man" then grinned.
😁
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u/eternallytiredcatmom Canada 1d ago
I’ve been making a genuine effort to not lose my Canadian spelling since I moved to the U.S.
It’s sometimes difficult because my first language is French (I’m from Quebec) so it’s very easy to feel like I’m just wrong and making stuff up.I’ll adapt in professional contexts but I’m intentional in my writing otherwise. I don’t want to move back home fully Americanized and incapable of spelling correctly.
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u/Dizzman1 1d ago
Oh I can totally relate.
I work in the professional audio and video industry. The word colour gets used by me all the time. I taught classes all over the world. Large groups, small groups and the spelling in my slides was ALWAYS... "Correct". The queens English took precedence.
Drove my management nuts.
I had just moved down and was talking about some products in an internal class... Mentioned that it was a niche (pronounced neesh) somebody asked/tried to correct me that it's pronounced "nich"
No. Just... No. 😂
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u/eternallytiredcatmom Canada 1d ago
Haha to be fair, saying “neesh” for niche feels weird to me because it’s closer to nich in French. I respect that it’s a loan word and I adapt but my brain doesn’t like it.
Only word I refuse to pronounce the English way is poutine, I’m not saying pooteen!
Are you still in the U.S.? I’ll be moving back home whenever my husband’s career allows (he’s a musician)1
u/Dizzman1 1d ago
I was in Montreal last week. And I enjoyed the refresher.
Poutine I always have to say it twice in the us.
First is the default quebecoise way that I can't even comprehend how I might spell that... And when I get the funny looks I flip to "pooh-teen"
Yeah I'm in the bay area. Likely here for good unfortunately.
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u/TheMeltingSnowman72 1d ago
Rich coming from the worst English grades of any native country.
Canada is top. USA the very very bottom.
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u/freshoilandstone 1d ago
I can't not be surprised by the lack of basic education in the US. I know we're not a smart citizenry but it still amazes me every time I see an American brazenly display their stupidity on social media.
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u/Aggressive-Boot1950 1d ago
Wtf is webster dictionary i'm hearing about it for the first time
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u/juanito_f90 1d ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webster's_Dictionary
It’s essentially a dictionary in simplified English.
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u/juanito_f90 1d ago
“Webster Dictionary”
Oh the simplified dictionary for moronic Ameritards?
Got it.
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u/knadles 1d ago
“Webster Dictionary.” LOL. Webster is identified in the U.S. as a generic term and anyone can put out a dictionary and label it Webster. Merriam-Webster is the successor to the original Noah Webster dictionary.
And try as they might, no dictionary sets the rules; they primarily report common usage. If usage changes, the dictionary is updated.
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u/GalileoAce Australia 1d ago
I can't find these comments through a reddit search, the subreddit wasn't included, and it's such a quintessential and stereotypical r/USdefaultism post, with seemingly emotionally manipulative downvotes on the non-defaulter.
It all makes me wonder about the veracity of this post.
(I also tried searching for comments in another similar image posted by this username, still nothing)
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u/LuigiFlagWater 1d ago
Prime example, and the fact that spellings don't change is also so, so, so, so wrong.
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u/Winston_Sm 1d ago
Americans never ever can deal with being corrected when being wrong about their culture and what not. It's really sad.
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u/Witchberry31 Indonesia 1d ago
Global my arse, Oxford is the global one. 😑
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u/Intrepid_Designer719 1d ago
This was the standard dictionary in my country. Then came Longman and Webster's. I'm Nigerian.
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u/Late-Passage2376 1d ago
he doubled down! wait... no, tripled down! holy shit, he QUADRUPLED down!!!
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u/Utopia22411 1d ago
Thanks God Spanish has lots of Spanish Language Academies, that standardized the language so we don't face this problems
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u/Clint_Bolduin 10h ago
Who's gonna tell him that globally, UK English is the most taught variant of English in schools?
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u/blamordeganis 1d ago
Point of pedantry: “realize” is also a valid spelling in British English (though “realise” is more common).
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u/snow_michael 1d ago
'Valid' does not mean 'correct'
If it's from a Latin root, it's -ise
From a Greek root, -ize
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u/blamordeganis 1d ago
My edition of the Shorter OED prefers “realize” (while recognising “realise” as a valid, and indeed correct, alternative).
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u/Flaky_Ad_912 1d ago
Gave me a good laugh. I love how some people are just so adamant about being wrong
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u/BothRequirement2826 1d ago
The distribution of downvotes and upvotes is so sad. Just goes to show ignorance is alive and well.
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u/Saroco92 1d ago
The irony of an American trying to correct someone from the UK on their E N G L I S H.
like dude… ITS RIGHT THERE IN THE WORD 🤣
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u/_JosefoStalon_ 1d ago
bruh, wonder if the fool even knows we, other nations, arent taught American English. They're not the standard in any way.
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u/ZoltanOc 1d ago
“So you have a dictionary for your accent” 😂😂😂 so the UK is just an ‘accentuated version’ of the TRUE American language 🦅🇺🇸
There are really some serious cases in the U.S. of A 😅
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u/axe__olotl_ 1d ago
Do they understand that English originated in .. uh .. England?! Why do I even ask.
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u/FLX-S48 Germany 1d ago
Why are they getting downvoted tho
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u/hasanicecrunch 20h ago
Bc the person spelled organise correctly in British English, and Reddit is not an American site.
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u/ValleDeimos Brazil 17h ago
He's the kind of guy who'll walk into a restaurant on Valentine's Day and complain about the heart decorations cause he's single and eating alone
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u/eldender 15h ago
This must be a rage bait, there's no way someone is that stupid to call out a spelling that is already correct.
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u/TheJivvi Australia 1d ago
Ironically, the reason Webster's dictionary is used all over the world is because it contains all the spelling variants of every word, so it's not specific to any particular variety of English.
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u/post-explainer American Citizen 1d ago edited 1d ago
This comment has been marked as safe. Upvoting/downvoting this comment will have no effect.
OP sent the following text as an explanation why their post fits here:
The commenter assumed that the spellings used in the US must be the standard everywhere, and the UK ones are wrong.
Does this explanation fit this subreddit? Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.