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What does the word debate mean to you?
Edit for clarity: In the context of a formal, moderated event.
Debate means to me what it means to you. Whatever the dictionary says.
Informally I guess it's an event in which two or more parties have a side in an argument, and they intend to prove that their side is the right one.
If I were to define it off the top of my head, I'd say it means a mutually respectful argument.
That being said, your comment rang a bell: A couple weeks ago I stumbled across descriptive and prescriptive linguistics. I'd mostly forgotten about it, but it's super relevant here.
The basic idea according to descriptivists is that laguage is living and a words meaning can change based on how it's being used by native speakers as a whole. Meanwhile prescriptivists insist on rules and grammar.
Or in other words; We're both right.
I'm using the word debate as it's typically used to describe a mutually respectful discussion of differing opinions, wheras you're coming from a more by the books, black and white stance.
I found this video on Youtube that ultimately posits descriptivism works better for speech, perscriptivism works better for writing. I agree, and Social media is a little bit of both.
It's an interesting watch at around 7 minutes long: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih0UqZ7O7Cg
Merriam-Webster has a decent write up on it too: https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/descriptive-vs-prescriptive-defining-lexicography
It does come off a bit pointed, imo, but I found that most sources unfortunately do.
Cool! We're both right, then.
Have a nice Friday!