entitlement
So, Entitled
In a recent article in the Guardian, this appeared:
It is no one’s “destiny” to be a published author. That implies a path laid out for us, an unshakeable future that is planned and unchangeable. And it is entitled.
That is a perfectly normal use of the modern sense of the word “entitled,” and it still slightly bothers me, as it has lo! these several years.
Because what it really means is that the person isn’t actually entitled to the thing in question. The older sense of “entitle” is to have the right to something — literally to have the title.
The modern meaning — the “He’s so entitled” formulation — really means “He’s behaving as if he were entitled to…”
Dictionary.com gives the definition of entitle as:
to give (a person or thing) a title, right, or claim to something; furnish with grounds for laying claim
Merriam-Webster is similar;
1: to give a title to : designate
2: to furnish with proper grounds for seeking or claiming something this ticket entitles the bearer to free admission
And neither has the modern meaning at all.
But I’m slightly horrified to find that the built-in dictionary in MacOS only has the modern meaning:
adjective
believing oneself to be inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment: kids who feel so entitled and think the world will revolve around them
It’s interesting, though, that its definition of entitle is similar to the two web-based ones. And Cambridge has both. It seems the difference is whether you use the verb or the adjective. The latter is the only one with the modern meaning.
Language changes, and that’s fine. But I wish that people who use it in the modern fashion understood what it is they’re saying, and what it can sound like they’re saying. I suspect they mostly don’t.
They’re behaving like they’re entitled to make words mean whatever they want.