Chuck vs. Chunk

For some time now, I have grown increasingly irritated when I have heard some random wayfaring troglodyte make the transitive verb substitution chunk for the preferred chuck.

Although Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary will not make this distinction, my faithful old friend, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, defines chunk as a transitive verb thusly:

chunk (chungk), v.t. South Midland and Southern U.S.
1. to toss or throw; chuck; chunking pebbles at the barn door.

Because the dictionary dutifully identifies this usage of the word chunk as a dialect common to the southern United States and does not classify it as slang, the statement

Being a southerner means sometimes having to chunk your dignity out the window

is grammatically correct.

You will forgive me for not accepting Webster's view on this. In fact, I believe etymologists have been a bit too liberal and progressive where the assimilation of cultural linguistic phenomena into the English language is concerned. Case in point, words like chunk are now acceptable in speech because an uneducated and unruly mass used them incorrectly.

Let them have their stupid word.

Let them eat cake.