Given that we use dictionaries as works of reference, to be consulted when we're looking for a definition, a spelling or a usage of a word; you might be mistaken for thinking that dictionaries set the rules. Or rather, that the compilers of dictionaries set the rules.
You'd be wrong. Actually, it is us, the speakers of the language, that set the rules through our ever changing usage and reinvention of words and their meanings. Dictionaries are merely a place to capture the words we use and how we use them. The compilers of dictionaries (or lexicographers) are recorders of language, after the event. Like distant relatives, they are usually not present at the birth.
We live in a world where words are constantly changing. Historically, they always have changed; it's why languages such as English have succeeded and become global languages. Take a look at silly (it once meant blessed), decimate (it once meant to kill every tenth person) and manufacture (it once meant to make by hand). They all carry very different meanings today.
In more recent times, once negative words like bad and wicked are now positive terms, gay, a word once used to describe something bright, joyous and lighthearted, has come to mean bad and nice has totally lost any real meaning altogether.
How did this happen? Because words change and evolve, in some ways similar to the way life changes and evolves; as the environment changes so we must change to survive in it.
I'm nauseous
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