It took a while for him to come to terms with what he saw.
He was amazed to find that with just a little research, he had discovered that the definition in the dictionary was wrong! He supposed it could be partly explained by the fact that it dates back to the early seventeen hundreds, and a hell of a lot can happen over a few centuries, what with the ever-present existence of typos. The confusion had no doubt been quite understandably brought about by dint of the additional fact that it was derived from four separate Latin roots, and obscure ones at that!
It played on his mind.
The thing that bothered him most was not knowing who he should tell. Despite this, he began digging deeper, spending more time in the evenings after his daytime job sorting returned books in the local library. In a way, it was this daytime activity that first got him started. He would often see a book title that appealed, and of course he would end up reading it. For almost a decade he had been there, sorting, returning, finding, borrowing, reading, sorting, returning, and so on. It was all about words really. Millions of them. However, finding one that had been defined incorrectly was a real worry.
That’s when he started looking for more.
Over a period of several weeks, he discovered four more. A total of five words, all being attributed with erroneous meanings.
It was at this point his thoughts returned to the vexed question of who he should approach with what he had discovered. If he managed to find some high authority that oversees such things, would they just fob him off with the notion that the definition was written by an editor, and not a specialist in the discipline of whatever the word was trying to deal with? Moreover, could he find himself getting into a lot more trouble than he wanted?
He considered going back to basics. He could start by going to the Chief Librarian. A pompous man, who had never really liked the way he had borrowed more books from the library that any of the other members in the library’s database. What would the man say, being confronted with something that had such extensive ramifications?
He began to think about how truly extensive all this really was.
When he considered how English speaking, writing and using people, had managed quite well with what was, after all, one of the most difficult and complex languages in the world, he had to ask himself, if these minor issues he had uncovered had not caused even a ripple over the centuries, was it worth risking his present situation? Did he want to risk his heart’s contentment, and place his nice little niche in jeopardy?
At the end of the day, he had to ask himself, was it better for him to maintain his regular, paid employment of sorting returns and reading as many books as he liked?
After careful thought, he was pleased when he answered with a resounding ‘yes’.
He put himself at peace with the concept that the world would never know.