“We now live in a culture in which there are no clear distinctions between highbrow, middlebrow, and lowbrow culture. It stands to reason that in a society in which speaking in a recognizably ‘highbrow’ way confers no benefits, dictionaries will likely matter less.” There’s an exception, though: When the current U.S. president and his administration try to bend words to mean something they do not, dictionaries are striking back.