![]() ![]() ![]() That brought reams of hate mail, but most interactions with readers are friendlier. One chapter takes an uncomfortable look at the racial assumptions baked into a Merriam-Webster definition of the color term “nude.” Another recounts the furor that erupted in 2009 when it added a subdefinition to its entry on “marriage,” noting uses to refer to same-sex unions that weren’t necessarily legally sanctioned. with ending sentences with prepositions as well as - brace yourself - split infinitives.) But she also describes being caught up in some higher-stakes fights. Stamper has no patience for self-styled purists who quail at “irregardless” - an actual word, she notes. Stamper notes, isn’t to say what something is, but to objectively and comprehensively catalog the many different ways words are used by real people. ![]() Dictionaries are often seen as argument-settling arbiters of truth. Stamper, the author of the new book “Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries,” was more than happy to offer a tour of some of the distinctly analog oddities in the basement. One online admirer has carefully tracked minute changes in her hair (which, for one thing, is purple).īut the company remains very much a bricks-and-mortar operation, still based in this small New England city where the Merriam brothers bought the rights to Noah Webster’s dictionary in the 1840s and carried on his idea of a distinctly American language. Her witty “Ask the Editor” video contributions, like a classic on the plural of octopus, and personal blog, Harmless Drudgery, have inspired a Kory Stamper Fan Club on Facebook. Kory Stamper, a lexicographer here, is very much part of the vanguard of word-nerd celebrities. Its editors star in online videos on hot-button topics like the serial comma, gender pronouns and the dreaded “irregardless.” Its Twitter feed has become a viral sensation, offering witty - and sometimes pointedly political - commentary on the news of the day. Merriam-Webster, the oldest dictionary publisher in America, has turned itself into a social media powerhouse over the past few years. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |