What does the word semantics meaning?

Semantic: "of, pertaining to, or arising from the different meanings of words or other symbols: semantic change; semantic confusion."

Pedantic: "overly concerned with minute details or formalisms, esp. in teaching."

As an English instructor, I get that language usage changes over time, that words shift meanings. I may not like it much. Seriously, ask me how I feel about people calling lecterns podiums? It really bugs the crap out of me! What about how the abbreviated until, 'til, has become till? Accepted usage and all, I get, but a lot of the shift in word usage comes about through the sloppiness of people who don't use the words correctly in the first place, until all those who are pedantic about the use of words throw their hands up in the air in aggrieved surrender that some things like till and podium, we're stuck with until the next generation comes along and renders that all mute (hah, no it doesn't!-moot! damnit!).

So when someone uses narcissist to describe Brian Deer because he has a website with, gasp, 36 photos of himself over the course of his life, of course, I'm pretty sure it's (a) because someone peed in his cheerios again and (b) because he doesn't understand narcissism. I get it; it's like using schizoid or schizophrenic in describing something when one really means split personality or dissociative personality. It's a stupid but popular mistake and it's made frequently. Self-absorbed; if you wanted to say Deer was self-absorbed, you could more correctly define his photo page as such. However, I believe, if you haven't been on facebook before or flickr or other social media, you might not realize that 36 photos over the COURSE of a lifetime that goes beyond 36 years doesn't even qualify for self-absorbed. Nor does having a website, either. And Deer's website is hardly "a cesspool of self-adulation."

No, 36 photos doesn't even qualify as self-absorbed. There are folks on facebook who take multiple self-pictures of themselves and post them all and do it every day, day after day, and I'm not even going to say that's self-absorbed. They're just sharing, and that (as long as they are dressed!) is fine. After all, time is fleeting, and all that. They'll have a lovely photographic record of each day of their life, won't they?

You can see, then, when one doesn't have an axe to grind on top of an intense hate for a person, that 36 photos doesn't even qualify as self-absorbed.