Brian.

I am whelmed by this exchange

I'm somewhat gruntled
- This whole exchange is tressing.
- I am the-moon.
whelm /wĕlm, hwĕlm/
transitive verb
To cover with water; submerge.
To overwhelm.
- OP wants to let you know that this exchange made them wet ☝️🤓
- Technically correct (still the best kind of correct). However, the meaning has changed a but due to the word's falling into disuse. Colloquially, it is now used as a mid-point between overwhelmed and underwhelmed, describing a situation as a mundane experience. Not disappointing, too stimulating, or even satisfying; just neutral ("Tell my wife I said 'Hello'").
I'm frankly plussed.
Ok Robin

Brian represents that group of people that just say, “No it’s not!”, with authority. I forgot what they call themselves.

Brian?
Idiots?
Contrarians?
- OMG no. That’s not it! Jesus
- Contrabrians
The call themselves right. But not in the sense that they're aligned with that political ideology. They just think they're the only correct ones and everyone... else... is... (...wait a second...).
- Not coincidental, they both stem from the directional description "right".
  In Old English riht meant both straight and not left. That's why "go right ahead" and "go straight ahead" are synonymous even tho that sense has been largely lost.
  "Right" then got the sense of proper/correct, likely because right-handedness is more common and thus the right hand was associated with being the "correct" hand. This is why you are "dextrous", from Latin dexter meaning directionally right.
  The political "right" as in conservative also comes from the direction right because in the French National Assembly after the 1789 revolution, the conservatives sat on the right while the progressives were seated on the left.
Confidently incorrect, to me at least.

Who says you can't hear tone in text?

Is he arguing with fhe dictionary?!!wtf

My opinion is that once someone invents a word, it exists forever, even if it's later marked as obsolete/archaic.
Conversely, just because the dictionary doesn't have a word, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
- I agree but he is saying the opposite lol
- Many words are forgotten, so I disagree with that they exist forever.
- Yeah, I can say all manner of things like bork and twiddledee, but I don't think I can get marblegargler to stick.
  Unless a meme picks it up or is in at least the urban dictionary, it doesn't count.
- GRRK (pronounced with rolled Rs)

In what was almost certainly a precedented move, Brian was wrong.

And so is my spell-checker.

I'm too dumb to get this one...why is this funny?

Merriam-Webster is literally the dictionary, and Brian is trying to correct them on what is and is not a word.
- Yes that part I get, but I don't get the reply from the Merriam Webster account and why that is funny
- Although it is an American dictionary, so it’s only going to be correct some of the time.
- Alternatively, he's saying that these are not in fact unprecedented times.
Dude's arguing with the dictionary.
- Like I already wrote in a different reply, that part I get, it's the Merriam Webster response that doesn't make sense to me.
Because Merriam Webster creates and produces the dictionary of the English language. They're literally the one who decides if a word is official. Their retort is succinct.
- Nope. They document what words are in common use. English is a "form follows usage" kind of language, where popularity of a word makes it correct. That's why "literally" can mean its own antonym and influencers get to make up new meanings for Fetch and Mid.
  Less architectural, more suicide note.
- Partly right, but they don't decide if a word is "official" (whatever that's supposed to mean). For a word to be a so-called "real" word it only has to be in common use among some group, dictionaries simply document words that have been in common use. Merriam-Webster is an authoritative record of words in use specifically in US English (with some records for other English variants and dialects, I think? ) but they are not a prescriptivist organisation. A word which appears in their dictionary is almost certainly a word that is or was in use in US English but a word that doesn't appear might also be a real word, particularly if it's a relatively new word or meaning.
  So with that in mind, arguing that a word is real when it doesn't appear in the dictionary can be valid in some cases, but arguing that a word isn't real when it does appear in a dictionary (like Brian did) is generally not smart.
  tl;dr, a dictionary, not the dictionary; not all English; "official" doesn't make sense here; in some (but not this) cases disagreeing is valid.
- How is just tagging him by name, and repeating his first name succinct? I don't get any sort of meaning from that response, it reads like a mistyped response.

whoever runs their social media types pure fire.

I'm more of a Wictionary guy, myself.

Is that a dictionary for witches? Or did you misspell wiktionary?

people don't understand how lexicons work. imagine thinking the dictionary gets to decide what is and isn't a word... go blork yourselves

edit: just so we're clear, im not saying brian is right, i'm saying this shit isnt fucking funny, because its humor relies on the dictionary being an authority. it's just someone saying "brian" and its funny because they're webster? who the fuck cares, let brian be a tweaker. wasted a minute of my life by posting this and now 7 minutes with these dumbass replies

If you lean towards descriptivism, it would be extremely strange to tell another group that their word with citable usage isn't real.
If you lean towards prescriptivism, then Merriam-Webster is literally the dictionary.
Brian doesn't have a leg to stand on for either side.
- I mean, I am going to presume he has two legs to stand on.
Except precedented is definitely a word that is used, particularly in the legal field, so the dictionary would definitely win that argument.
- i never said it wasnt???
- A couple of decades in the future the addition of "Presidented" to American English (verb: to arbitrarily make a declaration or issue an order, implicitly illegally) will really confuse things
Imagine thinking Brian Tarbell Brian gets to decide