Remember When Including Slang In Dictionaries Was Considered Outrageous?

These days the OED can list “bootylicious” and people barely blink. (Maybe they snicker.) “A half-century ago, when G. & C. Merriam Co. announced its new dictionary, Webster’s Third, there was an incredible outcry. It became known as ‘the permissive dictionary’ and provoked what was probably the greatest language controversy in American history.”