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Word by word : the secret life of dictionaries / Kory Stamper.

by Stamper, Kory.

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Pantheon Books, 2017.

Lexicography -- History.

Encyclopedias and dictionaries -- History and criticism.

Lexicographers -- Biography.

9781101870945 (hc.)

xiii, 296 pages ; 22 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-280) and index.

Hrafnkell: on falling in love -- But: on grammar -- It's: on "grammar" -- Irregardless: on wrong words -- Corpus: on collecting the bones -- Surfboard: on defining -- Pragmatic: on examples -- Take: on small words -- Bitch: on bad words -- Posh: on etymology and linguistic originalism -- American dream: on dates -- Nuclear: on pronunciation -- Marriage: on authority and the dictionary -- Epilogue: the damnedest thing.

"A vastly entertaining account of how dictionaries are made. Have you ever tried to define the word "is?" Do you have strong feelings about the word (and, yes, it is a word) "irregardless?" Did you know that OMG was first used in 1917, in a letter to Winston Churchill? These are the questions that keep lexicographers up at night. While most of us might take dictionaries for granted, the process of writing dictionaries is in fact as lively and dynamic as language itself. Kory Stamper cracks open the complex, obsessive world of lexicography, from the agonizing decisions about what and how to define, to the knotty questions of usage in an ever-changing language. She explains why the small words are the most difficult to define, how it can take nine months to define a single word, and how our biases about language and pronunciation can have tremendous social influence. She brings to life the hallowed halls (and highly idiosyncratic cubicles) of Merriam-Webster, a surprisingly rich world inhabited by quirky and erudite individuals who quietly shape the way we communicate"--Provided by publisher.

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