So how does a word
get into a dictionary?
It gets in because we use it
and we keep using it,
and dictionary editors are
paying attention to us.
If you're thinking,
"But that lets all of us
decide what words mean,"
I would say,
"Yes it does,
and it always has."
Dictionaries are a wonderful
guide and resource,
but there is no objective
dictionary authority out there
that is the final arbiter
about what words mean.
If a community of
speakers is using a word
and knows what it means,
it's real.
That word might be slangy,
that word might be informal,
that word might be a word
that you think is illogical or unnecessary,
but that word that we're using,
that word is real.