I've noticed what I consider a presumptuous and condescending meme on a few weblogs lately. Creating links on all the fancy words to definitions at dictionary.com just rubs me the wrong way. I get the impression that the writer thinks, "I am smarter than you. You need vocabulary help. I know you don't know this word. I'll do you a favor and give you a link so you can educate yourself. Peon."

I have linked to a dictionary.com definition once before, but that was to point out which meaning of a word I was referring to. I also defined the word in the paragraph text, and provided the link because I'd talked about a dictionary entry. I can therefore absolve myself of any accusations of hypocrisy.

Goodness knows we can't put up with weblog people being hypocritical.

(If anything, I'm guilty of tergiversation, because I realized that the meaning I cited in that earlier item wasn't the one I meant to cite, so I changed it. Hey, I can finagle a little here and there...)

Anyway, I wish this random big word definition linking stuff would stop. Minor peeve.

"Thanks for listening."