> Which English dictionary do you consider better?
I generally rely on the OED; my bookshelf dictionary is the Concise Oxford Dictionary (it's not "concise"). But the OED is also descriptivist. In the full version of the OED, they give multiple attestations for each meaning (citations, dates, author and so on). That means you can form a judgement about how to use or interpret a word, quite independently of the definitions the lexicon proposes.
I don't know of any English dictionary that isn't basically descriptivist. But I think M-W is pretty far along the descriptivist scale.
I used to have a copy of the Chambers Etymological Dictionary. That was good, because it provided an explanation of every definition it gave. Even if the definition was dubious, you knew why they were offering it.
I don't hate on descriptivism; usage needs to be described. It just pisses me off when a dictionary defines "literally" to mean "not literally", in the very words of their definition of "literally".
You seem to have pretty good mastery of English, if it's not your mother tongue.
I generally rely on the OED; my bookshelf dictionary is the Concise Oxford Dictionary (it's not "concise"). But the OED is also descriptivist. In the full version of the OED, they give multiple attestations for each meaning (citations, dates, author and so on). That means you can form a judgement about how to use or interpret a word, quite independently of the definitions the lexicon proposes.
I don't know of any English dictionary that isn't basically descriptivist. But I think M-W is pretty far along the descriptivist scale.
I used to have a copy of the Chambers Etymological Dictionary. That was good, because it provided an explanation of every definition it gave. Even if the definition was dubious, you knew why they were offering it.
I don't hate on descriptivism; usage needs to be described. It just pisses me off when a dictionary defines "literally" to mean "not literally", in the very words of their definition of "literally".
You seem to have pretty good mastery of English, if it's not your mother tongue.