Brimming with intelligence and personality, a vastly entertaining account of how dictionaries are made-a must read for word mavens.
Preface xi
HRAFNKELL: On Falling in Love 3
BUT: On Grammar 23
IT’S: On “Grammar” 38
IRREGARDLESS: On Wrong Words 52
CORPUS: On Collecting the Bones 68
SURFBOARD: On Defining 94
PRAGMATIC: On Examples 125
TAKE: On Small Words 136
BITCH: On Bad Words 149
POSH: On Etymology and Linguistic Originalism 169
AMERICAN DREAM: On Dates 189
NUCLEAR: On Pronunciation 199
NUDE: On Correspondence 216
MARRIAGE: On Authority and the Dictionary 230
EPILOGUE: The Damnedest Thing 255
Acknowledgments 263
Notes 265
Bibliography 275
Index 281
KORY STAMPER is a lexicographer at Merriam-Webster, where she also writes, edits, and appears in the "Ask the Editor" video series. She blogs regularly on language and lexicography at www.korystamper.com and her writing has appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, and on Slate.com.
"As a writer, Kory Stamper can do anything with words: define them,
split them, lump them, agglute them, and make them work for her
every bit as ferociously and precisely as she works for them in her
day job as a far from mild-mannered lexicographer at
Merriam-Webster. You will never take a dictionary entry for granted
again." —Mary Norris, bestselling author of Between You & Me
"A love letter to letters themselves... A cheerful and thoughtful
rebuke of the cult of the grammar scolds. Stamper [is] a wry and
charming correspondent. Word by Word is, like a dictionary itself,
a composite affair: It’s a memoir that is also an explanation of
the work that writing a dictionary entails." —Megan Garber,
The Atlantic
"An unlikely page-turner…Stamper displays a contagious enthusiasm
for words...Illuminating." —The New Yorker
"Delightful… Informed, irreverent and witty…A gloriously
(occasionally even uproariously) well written book, and
unsurprisingly erudite. Do read [Word by Word]." —Stevie Godson,
New York Journal of Books
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