YOUR correspondent Amenatave Yaconisau (4/4) raises a number of interesting points about dictionaries and words, which I would like to respond to.
First, although it is popularly believed that dictionaries are authorities on language, and some may have attempted to be so in the past, modern lexicographers do not claim to have any authority in language use, but to describe it.
It is the people who speak and write the language who are the authorities.
In the case of the iTaukei words vakasisi and ravisi, they have indeed been included in the iVolavosa Vakaviti (Monolingual Fijian dictionary) along with information on their meaning, use and etymology.
Also included is the word belavu, meaning dairy farm, though it is not marked as a slang, and the origin is from the New Zealand English expression “bail up”.
PAUL GERAGHTY
USP
Suva