You are not allowed to simply make up words.

This goes for all us regular folks, and especially for you folks writin’ the dictionaries.

“Unappropriate.”

Give me a break.  Of course that’s not a word.  The word is “inappropriate.”  But, I do hear it used a lot.

I have some online dictionaries that I consult:

— thefreedictionary.com

— dictionary.reference.com

— and, merriam-webster.com

Frankly, none of them is very good.

Yet, today, I have to say, MW came up big.

The first two told me that the definition of “unappropriate” is, as an adjective, “inappropriate; unsuitable.”  Yep, that’s right: “unappropriate”means “inappropriate.”  Bloody HELL.  And, the second definition in each was, as an adjective, “not appropriated.”  (Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that straining the concept of the difference between a verb and an adjective a little bit?  I mean, are these sources suggesting we can say, “Tomorrow, we will unappropriate that  land”?)

Merriam-Webster saved the day:

“The word you’ve entered isn’t in the dictionary. Click on a spelling suggestion below or try again using the search bar above.

“inappropriate”

The first two sources, also, unfortunately, offered a verb transitive definition for “unappropriate”:  “To take from private possession.”  Heck, that just looks like they are stretching to pretend that “unappropriate” actually has a legitimate usage.

So, I ask you, why do we accept another word as correct – a similar word, spelled just a little differently – just because a bunch of people use it wrong?

This is, indeed, appalling.

I was thinking of going back to these dictionaries to see if “untolerant” is there.  What about “unsignificant”?  Or, “unhonorable”?  Perhaps, “unrelevant” or “unexcusable”?  I didn’t have the strength.