I'm a debater and I endorse this message. I'm an honest person, and to be honest, most people on the team are whiny assholes that need constant ego stroking. To top it all off, OP is so bad about that that they popped off to a judge.

You realize the judge is the sole decider of who wins the round, right? If OP makes the judge dislike them, they judge is within their power to make them lose, even if they kicked ass. They have no accountability.

I disagree about correcting teachers. If they misspelled something on the board or were mispronouncing a word and it sounds like they were talking about something else, they probably should be corrected because they're teaching other people who might learn the wrong thing by accident...The difference with (most) teachers is that they're usually happy if a student corrects them because they know someone is actually paying attention, lol!

It's not splitting hairs though. I live in North America and if I hear someone say podium instead of lectern, I'm going to correct them. A podium is the platform that you stand ON when giving a speech of something. A lectern is the not really a desk like stand usually found in front of a podium on to which you can place your notes and the like. They are two entirely separate things and the insistence that the words be allowed to be used interchangeably is just catering to the lowest common denominator and their desire to bastardize languages so that they can continue to be lazy and carry on in ignorance.

Most of American English as it is today is a result of people being lazy, someone deciding to spell something more how it sounds, words being combined or borrowed from different languages, slang terms, and on and on. It's how language evolves and it is constantly evolving. Most people will use "podium" to mean the thing you stand behind when you give a speech, so that's what it means in lay terms. It is what it is and it will never stop changing, so there's no use in being a purist when it comes to language. It only makes you look like a snob.

#40 and #46, "lectern" is actually listed in the dictionary as a definition of "podium." Say whatever you want, but it only takes about 5 seconds on Google to confirm that. I'm not sure what other authority you're looking for, if the dictionary's not good enough when it comes to the definition of words.

It's been updated from original usage because of people too lazy to learn the correct usage and that is my problem. It's not about being against language "evolving". If we were coming up with new words and meanings I'd be fine with that. However we aren't. Instead we are rewarding ignorance and stupidity by saying "Oh, you don't know the proper word for that? It's ok, we'll just change the meaning of the word you do know to suit your usage rather than correct you and make you learn the correct word." It's that kind of bullshit that got the word literally changed from the meaning of "This is actually what happened/what it is" to also mean figuratively. Simply because people were too ******* stupid/lazy to learn proper usage. It is like we decided to give everyone participation medals for being able to make their vocal chords work.

To prove that if you look up lectern it is defined by Websters as a reading desk in a church on which the Bible rests and from which the lessons are read during the church service. 2. a stand with a slanted top, used to hold a book, speech, manuscript, etc., at the proper height for a reader or speaker. or the Oxford English Dictionary which defines it as 1. A reading- or singing-desk in a church, esp. that from which the lessons are read; made of wood, metal, or stone, and often in the form of an eagle with outspread wings supported on a column. a. A reading-desk in a private house.b. A writing desk; an escritoire †c. (a) A music-stand; and d. Sc. (in form lateran). The precentor's desk in a Scottish Presbyterian church. No where in the definition for lectern is it defined as being a podium. In other words people kept describing lecterns as being podiums so they stuck the definition in due to common usage. Commonly misusing a word is basically just using slang. If we are going to make slang into proper language than we have to start including things like "axe - to inquire about something" "Libary- a place where books are stored" or "Thot- originally an acronym that became a word meaning That Ho Over There" and "Ship- the act of fans pushing for a particular relationship between any sets of characters or people real or imagined."