The following series of comments are bottom posted:
Water is a drug.
Ed
Any definition of "drug" that includes a simple chemical that constitutes over half the mass of the mammalian body is a useless, even bad, definition.
HFCS is at least a manufactured product added to food for commercial gain.
Well, then, you need to get on Merriam-Webster's case about that.
Ed
No, I don't.
Because I am not dependent on Merriam and Webster for anything in my life.
I try to use intelligence and common sense where possible.
Are Oxygen and Nitrogen drugs?
How about the chemically "inert" gas Argon, which we breathe in and out to
the tune of about 180 GRAMS per day?
Civilization tends to use commonly recognized standards, such as dictionary definitions, to establish the meaning of language.
And civilized people frequently have to decide, often on a person by person basis, how to differentiate among conflicting "standard" definitions. Utilizing what common sense they may possess.
If we are to abandon this and use our individual common sense opinion as to the meaning of words, we will head toward chaos in our language.
Ed
Perhaps you hadn't noticed, but the English language has been in chaos for AT LEAST 400 years. Probably 1000 years, or more.
"God made the angels to show him splendor – as he made animals for innocence and plants for their simplicity. But Man he made to serve him wittily, in the tangle of his mind!"
-- Thomas More, in Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons
drug:
Etymology
From Middle English drogge (“medicine”), from Middle French drogue (“cure, pharmaceutical product”), from Old French drogue, drocque (“tincture, pharmaceutical product”), of Germanic origin, from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German droge, as in droge vate (“dry vats, dry barrels”), mistaking droge for the contents, which were wontedly dried herbs, plants or wares.
Noun
drug(pharmacology) A substance used to treat an illness, relieve a symptom, or modify a chemical process in the body for a specific purpose.
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Jim Saklad mailto:jimdoc@me.com
Long term evolution of language is one thing. My prior response to you was in terms of short change…. Actually, was in response to your comment that you relied on your own definition (common sense you said) of a word, “drug”. I reiterate, if we have no basis of standard for language we truly would sink into real chaos, and not the long term type you spoke of, above.
Ed in Oregon
