Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries“We think of English as a fortress to be defended, but a better analogy is to think of English as a child. We love and nurture it into being, and once it gains gross motor skills, it starts going exactly where we don’t want it to go: it heads right for the goddamned electrical sockets.” With wit and irreverence, lexicographer Kory Stamper cracks open the obsessive world of dictionary writing, from the agonizing decisions about what to define and how to do it to the knotty questions of ever-changing word usage. Filled with fun facts—for example, the first documented usage of “OMG” was in a letter to Winston Churchill—and Stamper’s own stories from the linguistic front lines (including how she became America’s foremost “irregardless” apologist, despite loathing the word), Word by Word is an endlessly entertaining look at the wonderful complexities and eccentricities of the English language. |
Contents
On Grammar | 23 |
On Grammar | 38 |
On Wrong Words | 52 |
On Collecting the Bones | 68 |
On Defining | 94 |
On Examples | 125 |
On Bad Words | 149 |
On Etymology and Linguistic Originalism | 169 |
On Dates | 189 |
On Correspondence | 216 |
On Authority and the Dictionary | 230 |
The Damnedest Thing | 255 |
Bibliography | 275 |
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actually adjective adverb alphabet American Heritage Dictionary answer asked batch began called century citation files cographer color correspondence cubicle David Foster Wallace defining definition descriptivism desk dialect dictio e-mail E. B. White edited editor Emily Emily Brewster English Dictionary English Language entry etymologists etymology evidence example sentences French going grammar Internet irregardless Jane Austen Johnson Josh Latin letter lexical lexicogra lexicographers linguistic look means Merriam Merriam-Webster Merriam-Webster's nary Noah Webster noun nü-kyǝ-lər nuclear nucular nude Oxford English Dictionary person pile pink posh preposition pronunciation published reader reading and marking reference revision same-sex marriage sense of bitch someone sort sound speech sprachgefühl Steve subsenses surfboard surfing talk tell there's thing tion tionary Unabridged Dictionary usage note verb verbal illustrations vocabulary Webster's Third woman word word's writing written