| prescriptivism |
| Definition: The belief that grammar should set the rules to which usage must conform. |
| Example: You should never end a sentence with a preposition. |
| Oxford English Dictionary: The word's first OED citation is from 1954: "Professor Bloomfield comes to the conclusion that what is taught in an English class must be some form of … prescriptivism, checked by the limits of fact as established by linguistics." (College English XV. 395/1) |