Definition of "prescriptive" [pre•scrip•tive]

• Sanctioned or authorized by long-standing custom or usage. (adjective)
• Making or giving injunctions, directions, laws, or rules. (adjective)
• Law Acquired by or based on uninterrupted possession. (adjective)
• Linguistics Based on or establishing norms or rules indicating how a language should or should not be used rather than describing the ways in which a language is used. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "But, this does not make the label prescriptive) King Agrippa, a Gentile, uses the term to describe Paul's people and then we have Peter who simply says that if one suffers because of the use of this derogatory name of "Christian" to not be ashamed of it and to glorify God in this."
• "It's all rubbish, but in any environment where authority goes hand in hand with level of engagement - the best critters are the ones that crit the most - anything prescriptive is going to be suspect."
• "So long as writers have a basic competence in English, prescriptive grammar is largely a distraction that keeps them from focusing on the needs of their work."