A dictionary describes usage — it does not legislate it

Stamper's foundational claim is that dictionaries are descriptive, not prescriptive: their job is to record how words are actually used by real speakers and writers, not to declare from on high which usages are correct. This runs against the popular assumption that a dictionary is a rulebook whose entries settle arguments about proper English.

In practice, this means lexicographers follow the evidence of usage wherever it leads, even when it contradicts personal preference or traditional grammar rules that were never accurate descriptions of English in the first place. If enough careful writers and speakers use a word a new way, that new sense eventually earns its place in the entry, regardless of what usage guides from decades past insisted.

Stamper treats this distinction as liberating rather than chaotic: it means the dictionary is honestly reporting a living, constantly evolving system rather than pretending language is a fixed, closed set of rules that never changes. Takeaway: when a dictionary updates a definition, it's usually catching up to language people already speak, not inventing new rules.