That’s a very American argument. Americans, who use Simplified English, used dictionaries as a political tool in the war of independence and still do
They developed a descriptive dictionary so they can say their usage is just as valid 🙄
but the rest of the world, who use Traditional English, use prescriptive dictionaries so we can have agreed upon meanings and usage.
I can promise you that words changing meaning over time is not an “American Argument”. Nothing to say what you mean by “American” (us, Canada, Argentina?) .
Language has changed all the time, via slang from the poorest, or the slang of the royals and powerful people throughout history.
We don’t say *dyeu anymore, to refer to the sun-god of proto-indo-european times; we say “Zeus”, “deity”, “deva” or “Jupiter” (all come from *dyeu).
So I don’t think the Americans had any say in that. Language and the evolution of language has happened endless times throughout history.
Example from Language Jones
