Talk:mother-in-law
This is perhaps a pedantic point, but pedantry in the name of accuracy is surely appropriate in a dictionary?
I had changed the definition to: (a) "A person's mother-in-law is his or her spouse's mother"
As of 14 May 2005 it has been changed to: (b) "one's spouse's mother"
While the meaning seems clear (perhaps because anyone who reads it knows the meaning already), this is not strictly correct if I am talking about someone else's MIL. I'm pretty sure I've seen this usage in other dictionaries, but that doesn't make it correct.
The only family that I can think of that most people will know is the cartoon Simpson family; Granpa is Homer's father; Marge is Homer's wife. So Granpa is Marge's father-in-law. But if, while talking about them, I speak about one's father-in-law, that would be taken to mean my FIL.
This explanation is probably not very clear, but perhaps others will either clarify it,or show it to be false.
_I_ am not going to start a changes war by changing the article. But if others agree, perhaps someone would care to correct the definition of this and similar words.