Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells....

There's a programme on BBC on a Saturday morning, which I tend to watch as I am coming to, where viewers can air their complaints about the Corporation's output. Recently, the subject under discussion was the incorrect - as the complainant saw it - use of language by presenters. In particular, the use of "refute" instead of "deny" and (that old perennial) the use of "less" instead of "fewer" when dealing with specific numbers. I'm somewhat of a pedant myself when it comes to grammar and punctuation, but what I think needs to be kept in mind is that language is a tool of communication and that provided the communicatee gets the message that's really all that matters. If people continue to use the word "refute" to mean "deny" (its official dictionary definition is "to prove to be false") then sooner or later it will officially adopt that meaning. There are innumerable words which have changed their meaning - in some instances radically - over the centuries. Language is essentially "work in progress" - it is forever evolving.