zlacker

There’s an important subtlety here — you’re meant to be replacing the words that don’t sit right with you. Your starting point is that it’s already potentially stilted and unnatural and you’re trying to fix that.

Most importantly though — this is a tool, and not a replacement for taste and judgment. Seen from that perspective, it’s a much more potent tool than what a traditional dictionary offers.

>>pdpi+(OP)
To quibble a bit, in American English, Webster's is the traditional dictionary. That's why most American English dictionaries have "Webster" in their name, even if, as Somers writes, their "contents bear no relation to Webster’s original." It's the leaden, imprecise form of definition Somers criticizes that is a break with Webster's tradition.

>>kragen+Q
Hah, that is, perhaps, a perfect example of the article’s point!

“Conventional” might’ve been a better choice of word than “traditional”, or something else that better conveys the meaning of “in common usage today”, without the “in the olden days” baggage that comes with “traditional”

>>pdpi+S2
Indeed!

>>pdpi+(OP)
"He has never been known to use a word that might cause the reader to check with a dictionary to see if it is properly used"

-- William Faulkner, of Ernest Hemmingway

"Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don’t know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use."

-- Hemmingway, of Faulkner

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/01/26/dictionary/

>>pdpi+S2
"common"