Prescriptivism and descriptivism: vegetarian, vegan and dairy

[Benjamin Barrett]

On Feb 4, 2012, at 1:49 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:

> 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.

The "usual sense" is the issue in all of these items. I agree with you that pesco- and gallivegetarians (?) don't really fit the usual sense despite being widespread.

>
>> 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.

I can't think of any other prefixes to add to that, sorry!

>
>> 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.

Good point. Honey should probably be included in the definition somewhere as some vegans eat it even though it's an animal product.

Benjamin Barrett
Seattle, WA

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