[prawn]

It's very stupid, but I check dictionary definitions in an incognito window because I'm horrified of someday people coming across my browser history and thinking "Wow, he didn't know the definition of that?! What an idiot!" The idea of a dictionary that tracks my searches horrifies me in a silly way. Ha!

[dionidium]

I look up words for which I already know the primary definition all the time. Sometimes it's just to confirm that it doesn't mean something subtly different than I remember. Sometimes it's to find alternate/secondary uses. Sometimes it's to confirm spelling. Sometimes it's a jumping off point for synonyms or related words. I wouldn't assume you were totally unfamiliar with a word just because you looked it up.

[blowski]

I’m amazed how often I “know” the primary definition, only to discover I’m wrong when I look in a dictionary. Same with pronunciation of words I’ve only seen written.

[donkeyd]

> Same with pronunciation of words I’ve only seen written.

I had the opposite experience when visiting the US for the first time. I saw a bag of 'luh-too-ché' in the store. For about 10 second my mind was wondering what it was. Then I realized that the word that is (to my Dutch brain) pronounced as 'ledice' is not spelled that way, it's spelled 'lettuce'. I came to the US with C2 level proficiency (thanks to subtitled media and MMORPGs), but I still had a lot to learn!

[mathieuh]

I do this all the time to look up pronunciations. I'm interested in linguistics so I taught myself IPA, and with things like stress being pretty unpredictable in English, while I might know the meaning of a word I like to make sure I'm pronouncing it correctly

[prawn]

Honestly, 99% of the time that's what I'm doing too. I'm pretty sure I'm using it correctly, but want to double-check before embarrassing myself in front of all of 10 people still on Twitter.

[rags2riches]

Looking up words is not stupid. Misusing words because you assume you know what they mean, that is stupid.

[zimpenfish]

> Misusing words because you assume you know what they mean, that is stupid.

But if you're sure you know what it means (albeit incorrectly), because that's what you've picked up or been taught and no-one has ever corrected or queried you, where would the impetus to look it up in a dictionary come from?

You might have a case for "deliberately misusing words [...] is stupid" but there's a long comedic and literary tradition there...

[rags2riches]

Isn't simple curiosity enough of an impetus? Wanting to now the etymology, alternative or similar words or phrases?

I also think there is a shared sense of how fancy, big or difficult a word or phrase is considered. Look up the fancier words more often!

Another possibility of course is wanting to correct somebody else, but double checking the definition just to be sure before you do!

[uhhyeahdude]

I suppose you could look at it that way. I certainly did, and it has taken me a very (stupid) long time come to a slightly different understanding. Not saying it is better necessarily. I just find it closer to true more of the time in my life.

Misusing words may or may not be stupid—without more information, including some nebulous stuff about intent and interpretation, I have no way of saying for sure in a given encounter.

What I would say instead is that many people seem to see “misuses words because [cocky/pretentious/know-it-all/careless]” as a heuristic for stupid. It isn’t a great heuristic, but knowing that people use it to rank you and choosing speech accordingly…isn’t stupid.

[HHest]

I think this is also a mechanism for languages to evolve: for whatever reason people start using a word differently from the dictionary definition. After a while if it has enough support the new usage gets added in. Sometimes the new way can be so entrenched that the old definition becomes archaic.

[jafo]

> Looking up words is not stupid.

That's for the ML algorithms to decide.

[StillLrning123]

I look up words all the time. Etymology is fun. I use several languages though, so I often get confused about nuances and subtleties.

[vxNsr]

Consider this very popular hn link: http://jsomers.net/blog/dictionary it gets posted once a year at least and strongly recommends looking up words you already know.

[jrimbault]

I also do that but when I know I won't come back later for it. I use my history as shortcuts, so I avoid cluttering it with random word lookups.

[gnicholas]

I look up everything in an incognito window!

But for dictionary/thesaurus I usually use spotlight to access MacOS' built-in resources, which is faster.

[uhhyeahdude]

Me too, it’s the most low-key killer feature of the OS imo. I use it automatically just to check my assumptions most most of the time; it’s just so easy and easily ingrained.

[luckyeight]

hey dictionary, what is cat?

[GuB-42]

Somewhat related: https://xkcd.com/1053/