Kilt, Skirt, MUG, etc.

[jkdesq]

One step forward and two steps back. Quit being evasive.

I have never said that I could redefine the word "kilt" or "skirt". My understanding that a "skirt" is a woman's garment comes from several source, which include: i) my OED that defines a skirt as "a woman's outergarment hanging from the waist" combined with the definition of kilt as "skirtlike" and not a "skirt"; ii) my understanding (as a nearly bilingual anglophone Canadian, who has an undergraduate and post-graduate degree and has traveled extensively through Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and East Asia) that when a typical English speaker says "skirt" they mean a garment intended for woman. The fact that when an English speaker calls a man's kilt a "skirt" they usually mean to tease or offend, I would say is a point in support of my opinion.

My point all along has been that there is ambiguity in the meaning of English words. There is no way to avoid ambiguity in a "culture consensus". Why do you think the first 1/4 of any legal document is definitions? Unless you are going to conduct a pole of all English speakers and come up with a system of quorum for the number of speakers it takes to lay the foundation of a definition, there is no absolute answer to what a word means. The OED and Websters (and fine, the bargain basement Compact OED weighs in on the Webster's side) disagree so dictionaries aren't the final answer. Are you suggesting that you are the sole English Immortal and can definitively tell me what "skirt" and "kilt" mean?

We are left with ambiguity. From there, individuals can take opinions. Everyone knows mine and yours. Neither are correct, neither are incorrect.

I've been offering a draw for awhile. It is you who keeps looking for the knock out punch and calling my point of view incorrect and "irrational". Can we agree to disagree and to respect each others opinions as rational and reasonable?