Dictionaries

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day: Dueling Definitions of ‘Dominatrix’

See The Compact Oxford English Dictionary 486 (2d ed. 1991) (defining “dominatrix” as a “female dominator; mistress, lady”); see also Urban Dictionary (retrieved on Aug. 23, 2011) (defining “dominatrix” as, inter alia, “a woman who controls her partner mentally and physically, usually in a sexual way,” and “is stereotypically pictured as wearing stiletto boots, [a] […]

Adam Liptak

Quote of the Day: But What’s the Alternative?

I think that it’s probably wrong, in almost all situations, to use a dictionary in the courtroom. Dictionary definitions are written with a lot of things in mind, but rigorously circumscribing the exact meanings and connotations of terms is not usually one of them. — Jesse Sheidlower, editor at large of the Oxford English Dictionary, […]