Talk:prescriptive

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This word is said to be the opposite of "descriptive". I'd like to see the definition expanded to explain how that is so.

  • It isn't AFAIAC. If one looks at prescribe, the correct antonym would seem to be proscriptive. Updated accordingly. (Also creating proscriptive, since it is missing. Google's 169,000 hits, the top ones other online dictionaries, would seem to imply it is a real word, at least de facto.)

Label: pejorative?[edit]

It seems to be used very pejoratively (almost prescriptively, even - as in, someone calls something 'prescriptive' and then the allegedly prescriptive thing is basically censored or very likely to be censored), particularly on Wiktionary. Would a label be called for? Or a usage note?--203.52.130.137 04:46, 8 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The word denotes something many find objectionable, like theft or communism, but carries no more negativity than the concept.--Simplificationalizer (talk) 23:02, 26 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]