I was nailing her last night....

[EngFan]

Dear all,

I would like to share what I learned from the one UK TV series, one guy said "I was nailing her last night", I was wondering what the meaning of "nailing her" is, so I opened my electronic dictionaries on PC, Longman, Oxford, MED, Cambridge...so on and so on, I couldn't find the real meaning of this verb, then I surfed it from the internet, in the urban dictionary, it shows the nail will have meaning of "having sexual intercourse", this word is very new for me, I guessed it had this meaning but I was not sure....I really hope these brand name dictionaries can add these sorts of words in the next version.....


EngFan

[BobK]

That's an interesting hope, but you don't expect anything to actually happen do you? Dictionaries have criteria for inclusion. This sense of 'nail someone' doesn't meet those criteria. That is what the Urban Dictionary does.

b

[CarloSsS]

That's an interesting hope, but you don't expect anything to actually happen do you? Dictionaries have criteria for inclusion. This sense of 'nail someone' doesn't meet those criteria. That is what the Urban Dictionary does.

b

Do they not include expressions like this one because it's too slang and/or taboo a word?

[birdeen's call]

It varies: Definition for nail - Oxford Dictionaries Online (World English)

Slang words are disadvantaged when it comes to being included in dictionaries. The most important criterion used by editors when they are deciding whether to include a word in their dictionary is how much the word is used in written language. Slang is used more in spoken language. The most common slang and vulgar words are common in literature too so they are in dictionaries. "Screw" meaning have sex with, for example, can be found in every dictionary.

"Nail someone" is common, but apparently not common enough make it to all dictionaries. I think it's borderline.

[Chicken Sandwich]

Do they not include expressions like this one because it's too slang and/or taboo a word?

No, that's definitely not the reason. My favourite dictionary, the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English has entries for words such as c**t, n****r and f**k, so no, dictionaries do not shy away from taboo or inappropriate words.
One of the reasons is that there is way too much slang and dictionaries just simply cannot keep up. A couple of days ago I was watching an Australian movie, and I had to look up a lot of words on the Internet because some words in the movie were not included in the dictionaries that I own. For example, "Why didn’t anyone call me? I would’ve got the soggies up there?". Apparently, soggies is an Australian term for officers of the Special Operations Group. Now Longman could decide to include this word in their next edition, but since it occurs so infrequently, they would probably (rightfully) conclude: why bother?

[BobK]

No, that's definitely not the reason...

5ll's key word is 'criterion'; I had previously used the plural, 'criteria'. Look it up. It's unwise and childish to disagree with people so blatantly when you have not understood what they said. Neither of us said anything about taboo words.

b

[Chicken Sandwich]

It's unwise and childish to disagree with people so blatantly when you have not understood what they said.

Sorry, but I don't see how I was disagreeing with anyone here (which I am not). I was merely responding to CarloSsS, who, as I understood it, thought that dictionaries avoided expressions which contain taboo words. If this is not the case, than I have missed the point.

[BobK]

Apologies - and to BC (who joins emsr2d2 in the class of 'people I've referred to as "5jj"' )

b

[BobK]

Apologies - and to BC (who joins emsr2d2 in the class of 'people I've referred to as "5jj"' )

b

[birdeen's call]

Apologies - and to BC (who joins emsr2d2 in the class of 'people I've referred to as "5jj"' )

b

5ll, actually.