Trippin'

Tyler Gunnin
English 1101
Dr. Hughes
9/18/09
Language has continually changed throughout the years. The meaning of any certain word can stir up mixed debate. Today the internet presents access to multiple dictionaries, including two of the most well-known: The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and the Urban Dictionary. These two sites allow us to see a "proper" definition, coming from the OED, and a "not-so-politically-correct" definition, branching from the Urban Dictionary. The word I chose to examine from these two sources is "trip". By viewing the OED and Urban Dictionary, the alteration in a single word's meaning becomes apparent through the prescriptive and descriptive definitions.
The OED offers a prescriptive view of the various words in the English language, because it presents the definitions in the way that they technically "should" be presented. "Trip" is a common word, and when searched in the OED, the definition is presented as: The action or an act of tripping or moving lightly and quickly; a light lively movement of the feet. It also gives the definition: A short voyage or journey; a ‘run’. The term used as an act was first used in 1600, and in it was later used in 1691 as a short voyage. The OED is presented by scholars in this prescriptive version, therefore, when trusting a dictionary definition, it is always the smart choice to access the site that produces words approved by the renown scholars themselves.
The Urban Dictionary presents an extremely differed definition of a word. The site is descriptive in the sense that anyone can write their own meaning to a word in the way we think they should be used. First, a point that feels necessary to mention, is the fact that people may sometimes underestimate the OED. For example, when researching the word "trip", I had no clue that it was first used as a slang word in 1959. Although the OED may present the definition as a slang term, the Urban Dictionary displays the term in the way I expected it to be shown. "Trip", according to the Urban Dictionary's definition, is: A noun that refers to a single complete experience of using acid (LSD, which is a powerful hallucinogenic drug), or any other powerful hallucinogenic drug. It is also stated: Can be used fuguratively in a way that is very often used to describe things that are crazy, chaotic, cool, or ,esp., figuratively capable of inducing hallucinations. The Urban Dictionary can be accessed by anyone, and whoever chooses to do so, may post their very own definition, therefore, it is never wise to follow any information linked from the site.
The OED and the Urban Dictionary both have their strong points. The OED presents prescriptive information, because the English scholars research, write, and approve the definitions on the site. The Urban Dictionary presents descriptive information, because "everyday" people write the "everyday" definition in the way that we may be more comfortable with. Although it may be true, the obvious dictionary that is "better" and more accurate is the OED. It may not be the descriptive definition that we may be use to, but it presents the appropriate information in a descriptive manner in the way we should be use to.