Updated Words.... New words... Really?

Okay.  This has been bothering me for some time now and as a retired editor, I decided I had to finally say something. Keep in mind I'm only expressing my opinion on the subject matter, so Please, no torches.

I'm an avid reader. I admit, in the last couple years I haven't been reading as much since other things have made claims on my time. (They say when you retire you'll have more time to do the things you love. Know any more jokes?) There have been a few subtle changes in grammar that apparently no one has seen fit to question, at least no one I've heard from.

When we learned basic grammar in school, we learned about the tenses of words: present, past, future, etc.  I can remember being given a list of words for homework and having to write those words in all their forms. It was fun and challenging. It gave us a start to putting words together and making sense of them. I know. We're talking in sentences before we even go off to school. But learning about sentences and the parts of speech that go into the making of them help us to understand how language is used, created, or just exists. Watching the slow deterioration of language makes me wonder what is being taught now, if anything. There are aspects of language that are no longer deemed important, what with the advent of social media, texting, spelling and sentence structure is going the way of the dodo.

So getting to the heart of the matter. At first I figured, typo, a writing error that wasn't caught. Typos can happen in the printing process, then it's kind of too late to do anything about them. Nobody's perfect. Or it could be a mistake on the part of the writer where something isn't caught and continues to linger in future books. The bad part is when those errors (I'd like to believe that's how they started out) become the norm.

Lighted?  Shined?  Drug???  Are they for real?  ex.: Mary lighted the candles on the birthday cake. It doesn't even sound right, more like a child that has yet to learn about grammar. What happened to ... Mary lit the candles...

Or how about, John shined the flashlight around the room. Shined is meant for shoes, not sources of light. While the right way to say the same might be, John shone the flashlight around the room. I admit it's a bit awkward even though it's the proper form. It might be better as John directed the flashlight beam into the corner of the room.

And the worst of the three. Harry drugged the body away from the door. Drugged??? Did Harry cause the body to take on a chemical stupor? Sounds ridiculous. In this case Harry dragged the body away from the door. It's dead weight figuratively and literally and dragging is about the only way to move it. Granted, these are mild compared to one other item I was made aware of.

Some powers that be might be more concerned with finding ways to remain relevant in a world gone tech crazy. Not only are they accepting senseless forms of words, but they also accept new words that are inconsiderate to say the least as well as downright insulting. Recently, a new word was accepted by a particular dictionary as acceptable. It's one that is aimed at a specific group of people. I won't mention the word here, it's that nasty.  Is this what we are degenerating into with the push to make changes in our language? I know words change in meaning and other words are created to better explain the world around us, but there's such a thing as taking it too far.

As members of a vocation that uses one of the greatest forms of communication, it's up to authors and editors, more than anyone else in the industry, to make sure we present the language, both written and spoken,  at its best.