mike's web log/comments

I was looking up a word (not this one) on Dictionary.com the other day that happened to be a verb. This might not be new, but it's the first time I noticed it:

Dictionary.com aggregates entries from multiple dictionaries, and further down the page is the entry from American Heritage, which looks slightly different:

People who spend their days wallowing around in grammar will refer to a verb "used without object" as intransitive (in dictionaries, generally v. intr. or even just vi), and to a verb "used with object" as transitive (v. tr. or vt)).[1]

Not surprisingly, I'm well used to the terms transitive and intransitive and I was (as noted) interested to see that their use had been dispensed with in this context. That isn't unreasonable; the terms are technical and therefore probably not something that casual dictionary users are apt to know.

But in a similar vein, how many such casual users know what an object is in reference to a verb? It's an interesting question that a lexicographer would have to put some thought into -- how much technical vocabulary can you get away with? For that matter, who exactly is your audience?


[1] FWIW, the definitions, at least as provided by Dictionary.com, are sort of circular: transitive is defined essentially as "requires an object." The definitions do not address the "affecting something else" nature of the verb, really.