Verbatim: From the Bawdy to the Sublime, the Best Writing on Language for Word Lovers, Grammar Mavens, and Armchair Linguists

Erin McKean

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001 - Language Arts & Disciplines - 353 pages

From the bawdy to the sublime, the best writing on language for word lovers, grammar mavens, and armchair linguists. A brilliant, witty, and engaging compendium on the uses and abuses of the English language.

With bestselling narratives such as The Professor and the Madman to edicts by popular grammar mavens including Pat O'Conner and Barbara Wallraff,
it is clear readers outside of academia are becoming more and more intrigued with language. Founded by legendary lexicographer Lawrence Urdang, for thirty years Verbatim has published amusing and intriguing articles on the English language and the idea of language in general. Here, for the first time, is a collection of Verbatim's greatest hits and wondrous discoveries on concept, usage, jargon, wordplay, linguistics, blunders, malapropisms, and more.

With contributors such as Richard Lederer, Jesse Sheidlower, and Joe Queenan, lexicography heavyweights like Frederick Cassidy and William Kunstler, Verbatim is a smart and sassy collection for anyone seeking the highly scholarly or the completely frivolous. From the uses of language in the Bible to the components of a British soccer chant, this astounding collection is sure to offer something for every language enthusiast and word lover to enjoy.

What people are saying

Review: Verbatim: From the bawdy to the sublime, the best writing on language for word lovers, grammar mavens, and armchair linguists

User Review  - Eva - Goodreads

I expected to like this book, since I majored in linguistics and am such a big Erin McKean fan. But I generally found the articles read like pedantic laundry lists, which is a bit exhausting even for ...

Review: Verbatim: From the bawdy to the sublime, the best writing on language for word lovers, grammar mavens, and armchair linguists

User Review  - Ratforce - Goodreads

As a fan of language and wordplay, you can't do much better than Verbatim . This book is a compilation of essays about the use and misuse of language from top scholars, including Richard Lederer!

About the author

Erin McKean is the editor of Verbatim: A Language Quarterly and senior editor, U.S. Dictionaries, for Oxford University Press. McKean wanted to be a lexicographer since she was eight years old after reading a newspaper story about the production of the second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. She attended the University of Chicago, where she completed a B.A. and an M.A. in linguistics in four years. She lives in Chicago.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Verbatim: From the Bawdy to the Sublime, the Best Writing on Language for Word Lovers, Grammar Mavens, and Armchair Linguists; A Harvest original
• Editor: Erin McKean
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001
• ISBN: 015601209X, 9780156012096
• Length: 353 pages
• Subjects: Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / Etymology; Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / General; Language Arts & Disciplines / Vocabulary