Dictionary.Reference.Com - USE IT.

There are days when I just want to cram a dictionary, with select entries highlighted, down the throats of certain individuals who seem to possess a fundamental ignorance of the very language they are abusing.

I know my own use of the language is not perfect, but there are just some things that cross a line for me and seriously test my patience. Currently top on my list: people complaining at length about the meanings of words that, in whole or in part, they do not understand. A perfect example of this behavior would be those individuals I have seen complaining that the word "mundane" is fundamentally derogatory because people think it means banal. It does not. In fact, it has developed a popular derogatory *usage* within our community precisely because of this misapprehension. Mundane simply means something which is commonplace or worldly... such as ordinary secular matters and everyday life. Banal is the word which carries the negative meaning of drearily commonplace and often predictable, and is being incorrectly juxtaposed with the benign term "mundane."

Personally, I'd be a lot happier with the people who complain about issues like this if they just took five minutes to look up the actual meaning of the term they're complaining about at http://dictionary.reference.com before they start complaining about it publicly based solely upon their incorrect assumptions about what the words mean.