Are Dictionaries Obsolete?

This article, "Are Dictionaries Becoming Obsolete?" in the WSJ caught my attention - if you are in the Germanna cohort, we'll be talking a LOT about vocabulary and this sort of thing this week, so you might want to read it in full. Here's a snippet, to pique your interest:

Do we still need dictionaries in the age of Google?

Dictionaries are, after all, giant databases of words compiled by lexicographers who investigate word usages and meanings.

These days, however, Google is our database of meaning. Want to know how to spell assiduous? Type it incorrectly and Google will reply, in its kind-hearted way: "Did you mean: assiduous"? Why yes, Google, I did.

Google then spits out a bunch of links to Web definitions for assiduous. Without clicking on any of them, the two-sentence summaries below each link give me enough to get a sense of the word: "hard working," and "diligent."

Still not satisfied? Fine, click on the Google "News" tab – and you will be directed to a page of links where the word assiduous appears in news stories. Presto, sample sentences and usage examples.

"You and I can be our own lexicographers now," says Barbara Wallraff, the longtime language columnist for The Atlantic magazine. "We don't need dictionaries."

(Extra points for Germanna students for adding information about Barbara Wallraff in the comments....)

Carrie (@ Germanna)