Anyways, just so you know: you're the first person that has ever gotten onto my case 'bout the use of hoi polloi. I don't know what Cracker Jacks box you obtained your lexicon (there's a prize in every box) from, but hoi polloi refers to the "common people" not that which is colloquially connotated as being the novoue riche.
Hoi polloi is a borrowing of the Greek phrase hoi polloi, consisting of hoi, meaning "the" and used before a plural, and polloi, the plural of polus, "many." In Greek hoi polloi had a special sense, "the greater number, the people, the commonalty, the masses." This phrase has generally expressed this meaning in English since its first recorded instance, in an 1837 work by James Fenimore Cooper. "Hoi polloi" is sometimes incorrectly used to mean "the elite," [see? Ah, ha ah-HAH!] possibly because it is reminiscent of high and mighty or because it sounds like "hoity-toity". · Since the Greek phrase includes an article, some critics have argued that the phrase "the hoi polloi" is redundant. But phrases borrowed from other languages are often reanalyzed in English as single words. For example, a number of Arabic noun phrases were borrowed into English as simple nouns. The Arabic element al- means "the," and appears in English nouns such as alcohol and alchemy. Thus, since no one would consider a phrase such as "the alcohol" to be redundant, criticizing the hoi polloi on similar grounds seems pedantic. - Usage Note (The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved).Consider yourself "slammed" whilest I do the Church-lady "Superior Dance". (In your face, In your face, In Your Face. My aren't I feeling special?). You are "slammed" sir, do not try some cheap specious and transparent attempt to un-slam yourself. Everybody will see your feeble attempts as being nothing more than the tactics of a desperate slammee to un-slam themselves.
Snicker, snicker, chortle, chortle, guffaw. Just what in the $$*#@( is the difference between a chortle and a guffaw anyways?
Raygun snickers and chortles, with a mighty well pleased smirk on his face.
The American Heritage Dictionary draws its usage standard not from what is correct, but what people are (however incorrectly) using. At least in your example, they first state the correct usage, although they then in a weaselly afterword say that it doesn't matter anyway. It is what is commonly known as a "popular dictionary" - iow, The English Language by Popular Vote.
I am a great fan of American Heritage Magazine, originally the Journal of State and Local History back in the late 40s . . . they have done a great service for historians and for amateurs alike. It's worth hunting down back issues - I have a few of the old paperbounds and most of the hardcover issues that began in the 50s. But the dictionary has not been one of their finest hours, especially since H-M bought them out.
Of course correct usage matters (shall we simply jettison etymology by popular vote?) And to compare Greek words that are still quoted in italics in the original language with Arabic loan-words that entered the language centuries ago via medieval Latin is hair splitting at best, and a knowingly specious argument at worst.
My lexicon is Liddell & Scott's. You may have heard of it. (Dean Liddell's other claim to fame was that he was the father of the original "Alice in Wonderland".) I think you would enjoy learning Greek, it is a beautiful language. Plus you have the enjoyment and knowledge of reading Homer, the 5th century Athenians, and the New Testament in the original!