Folks, Dictionaries Exist and Highways Sometimes Change Direction, but Not Orientation

I really try to drive home to my students that if they don't recognize a word, or know the meaning of it, or are seeing a word used in a context they're not familiar with it, the first thing they should do is look the word up in a dictionary.

I do this all the time, and I learn a lot. Some words I think I know the meaning of I see in a different context that makes me question my thinking. So I look the word up and see that it is indeed being used in the correct context and that my understanding of the word was only partially correct. Thus armed with better information, the next time I see that word I recognize it's being used correctly. Or not, depending on how it's being used.

Local folks could do well to remember this essential life skill, viz:

In this case -- two cases, actually; one discussing a fiery pileup in a freeway tunnel in Wyoming, and this one discussing a plane crash in Canada, East Idaho News (and the Associated Press) were using casualty correctly: Anyone hurt or killed in an accident. A fatality, of course, means those killed.

But people have been really spun up in thinking they know the ONLY way the word casualty is used is to mean a person who was killed. And no amount of correcting, from EIN nor from their viewers who know the full meaning of the word, corrected the individuals who insisted it was being used incorrectly. A few of them, when shown the dictionary definition, doubled down on their thinking rather than admitting they were learning something new.

A fair number of commenters found this response to be condescending which, of course, it is not. I love the guy who jumped into the comments and defined condescending "for the folks at home." Now, that was condescending. And hilarious.

I was kind of sad to see EIN give up on this. They should keep using the word and encourage their viewers to open a dictionary now and again. But clearly they decided this wasn't a hill they want to die on.

I'm waiting to see if they remain committed to the true concept that US Highway 20 -- which stretches from Boston to Seaside, Oregon, in an east-west directon -- is indeed an east-west highway, despite the fact that in our neck of the woods it is oriented in a north-south direction, much to the consernation of local folks who can't fathom that a tiny little jog in an east-west highway doesn't mean it should be talked about as a north-south highway. Highway 20 below passing through Idaho in clearly an east-west orientation, with the north-south jog that *really* confuses local folks to the point they're convinced it's incorrect when the news refers to an accident occurring in the "eastbound" or "westbound" lanes.

I'm certain it's only a matter of time before EIN gives up on this hill too, rather than have to listen to the whiners on social media.