I was just thinking, is there any reason for the word "dictionary" to be in the dictionary? I mean, if someone uses a dictionary to look up the word dictionary, then they obviously already know what a dictionary is. I guess they have to have it in there for the sake of completeness, as they do a number of other words. For instance, no one is ever going to look up what "the" or "of" means, but they still had to define them. And, though everyone who has even a slight grasp of English understands those concepts, the words themselves are really hard to define. I bet the least senior people got that assignment; think of spending all that time trying to explain "the" while knowing no one is ever actually going to read it. And did the person have to refrain from using "the" in the definition to keep it from being circular? Are there lots of disgruntled dictionary people? Maybe they get some cool benefits, like, after being there a long while, you get to make up your own word. Oh, and was the aardvark named that simply for prominent placement in the dictionary? If that's true, that's kind of pathetic. Then again, I guess that makes the aardwolf even more pathetic. And is there an authority they go to for defining slang and swear words, or do they just reference their foul-mouthed uncle Louie?

I gotta stop looking up words in the dictionary; it's distracting.

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