Prescriptivism and descriptivism: vegetarian, vegan and dairy

[Laurence Horn]

On Feb 4, 2012, at 3:54 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:

> 1. vegetarian
>
> Vegetarians may be ovo-, lacto-, pesco- or other sorts, but only "vegetarian" is found in the OED. The AHD has them, but only with a hyphen. Wiktionary has reasonably good coverage.
>
Of course ovo- and lacto- (and ovo-lacto-) vegetarians are also vegetarians in the usual sense, while pesco-vegetarians (or pesky-, as some of my acquaintance call themselves) aren't.

> But none of those dictionaries provide a definition of "vegetarian" that includes people who eat fish or chicken despite widespread use of vegetarian to mean that.
>
> ...
> 2. vegan
>
> Today, someone who works at a dessert shop informed me he double-checks with customers who say they are vegan because, as it turns out, many eat milk products and/or eggs. I say this falls under the category of misinformed,

I'll say.  Maybe they eat dairy products but feel guilty about the exploitation.  In which case instead of vegans they're really guilto-lacto-vegetarians.

> but words do change over time.
>
> Also, the OED defines "vegan" to be only in connection with eating. The AHD and Wiktionary also cover non-food use of animal products, which is very frequently part-and-parcel of this definition.
>
Right: leather-wearing in particular.  And of course honey-eating, but that's food use.

LH

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