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Re:Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard by ghaff on Thursday April 15, 2021 @02:59PM (#26824769)
Though here is the definition from Merriam-Webster, which I'd consider the standard reference for US English.

any of the five terminating members of the hand : a digit of the forelimb especially : one other than the thumb

That seems more correct to me because I don't think in normal usage saying that "most people have 10 fingers and 10 toes" would be considered an inaccurate statement. And, if someone said they have four fingers on their right hand, you'd assume they meant they were missing a digit.

And even the Collins dictionary has a countable noun meaning with the usage example: "The fingers of a glove are the parts that a person's fingers fit into."

Re:Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard by dotancohen on Thursday April 15, 2021 @05:02PM (#26826068)

  > Though here is the definition from Merriam-Webster, which
  > I'd consider the standard reference for US English.
M-W considers itself a "descriptive" dictionary, not a "prescriptive" dictionary. That means that it will tell you what people who use words mean to say, but it will not tell you the actual meaning of the words. Therefore it is absolutely NOT a standard reference for English.

The nuance is sometimes important, M-W was the first dictionary to give "figuratively" as a definition for the word "literally" due to the way some people use the word "literally" online.

Re:Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard by ghaff on Thursday April 15, 2021 @05:13PM (#26826173)
Much as I dislike literally==figuratively I'm not sure what descriptive vs. prescriptive has to do with standard reference. I'm somewhere between the poles. On the one hand see figuratively comment. On the other hand, languages are living things. And, to my example, if you tell me you have four fingers on one hand, I'll ask you how the accident happened.

I also think you'll find a lot more organizations that use MW as their reference standard than other US dictionaries.

Re:Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard by dotancohen on Thursday April 15, 2021 @05:19PM (#26826244)
Descriptive: Describes how people use the language.

Prescriptive: Describes how language should be used.

Descriptive dictionaries are highly favoured by those who like to effect change (I'm deliberately avoiding the word Liberal because I'm not in the US and I understand that word to be politically charged for many HN readers). Prescriptive dictionaries are more favoured by those who keep traditional values. Descriptive dictionaries can be used to say "I'm using the word correctly" and prescriptive dictionaries can be used to say "you're using the word incorrectly".

Re:Show HN: I made a 5-key keyboard by ghaff on Thursday April 15, 2021 @05:34PM (#26826409)
But organizations mostly want to talk to people in the language that they use. They have zero interest in being the language police. They may decide that their writers shouldn't use literally to mean figuratively. But, at least where I work, we're mostly interested in using the language that best connects to readers.