Righteous

The word I have chosen is righteous. I heard somone say it today when they were referring to something being completely incredible, so it made me wonder about the different ways you can use the word righteous. I have never thought about using the word righteous in my normal, everyday vocabulary so I decided to look it up. Occording to Oxford English dictionary, the word righteous means, "1. a. Of persons: Just, upright, virtuous; guiltless, sinless; conforming to the standard of the divine or the moral law; acting rightly or justly. 2. Of actions, etc.: Characterized by justice or uprightness; morally right or justifiable. Chiefly Sc. Rightful, lawful, legitimate. Right, genuine; correct, exact. Obs. rare." In comparison, the Urban Dictionary states righteous as, " Containing the best possible attributable qualities. A state of extreme perfection bordering on divinity that bestows moral authority upon the subject. Amazingly amazing." The Oxford English dictionary is a professional useful source of dependable meanings to words. The author worked for many, many years with a team trying to perfect every word and and include a variety of words spoken in the english language. The Urban Dictionary, on the other hand, is not a dependable source of vocabulary knowledge. The Urban Dictionary has been known for being more "crude" and also anyone can log on and edit the meaning, make it their very own. Taking into account all of the facts, I believe the Oxford English Dictionary is the more dependable source and it would definately be the one I would always turn to for answers. The Oxford English dictionary is more prescriptive while the Urban dictionary is descriptive. The prescriptive category would be the more accurate and dependable one if you are looking for a more professional meaning. There are different meanings to different people though. To the surfer, righteous might be used to refer to a totally wicked wave he just dominated but to a religious person, it might be a comparison to someone's actions. The difference between the two is that we have taken words and put a modern, slang twist to them and made them into meaning something new and different, along with the old meaning. Personally, when trying to be professional, I will always use the Oxford English Dictionary definitions and will hardly use the Urban Dictionary definitions. If I want to use a definition along those lines, then I will just make it up myself from the slang I use!