Prescriptivism and descriptivism: vegetarian, vegan and dairy

[Laurence Horn]

On Feb 4, 2012, at 5:34 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:

> 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 (?)

cock-o-vegetarians?

> don't really fit the usual sense despite being widespread.
>
>>> 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.
>
melo-vegetarians?

LH

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