place, does meaning really matter? And, who decides what a word really means? Does an English dictionary such as Webster’s Third International or the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) prescribe meanings of words, or does it merely report on the consensus view of English speakers? In fact, the OED gained its well-deserved reputation largely because it provides a diachronic catalog of contextual quotations. Alice, and the linguist, should ask not only, “What do words mean?” but, “How do words mean?”