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"Sometimes you want to make the dictionary sexy, but it's just not a sexy thing," says Kory Stamper, lexicographer for the Merriam-Webster dictionaries.
Sorry if this is disillusioning news for you. The dictionary is not a sexy thing, but as Kory explains, it is a fascinating, complicated, exacting thing.
ADDENDUMS*:
Read Kory Stamper's book Word By Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries - I am confident that you Allusionites will love it. You might be able to catch her on her book tour, too.
A glimpse into life at Merriam-Webster, and here are a few of Kory's Merriam-Webster colleagues talking about it.
In recent months, dictionaries have been on particularly sharp form online. Merriam-Webster's Twitter account does some magnificent work.
Listen to some of the other dictionary-related Allusionist episodes: Mountweazel, Word of the Day, and Fix part I.
I dealt with 'on fleek' in Answer Me This! Episode 339; that's as much as grandma here can handle, fleekwise.
There's a transcript of this episode at theallusionist.org/transcripts/authority.
*Yes. I said 'addendums', not 'addenda'. You won't catch me saying 'stadia' rather than 'stadiums' either.
YOUR RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
remuage
CREDITS:
Kory Stamper is a lexicographer at Merriam-Webster, and the author of Word By Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries. Follow her on Twitter @korystamper, and find more of her work at harmlessdrudgery.com.
This episode was produced by me, with music and editorial help from Martin Austwick.
Find me at facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/helenzaltzman and instagram.com/helenzaltzman.
