Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries

Well who knew that reading about dictionaries could be so entertaining. This is an absolutely charming book--one that made me both think seriously about previously unconsidered issues and occasionally made me laugh out loud. Kory Stamper, a lexicographer with Merriam Webster, has revealed the sausage-making machinery of creating that taken-for-granted staple in most people's lives, a dictionary. I learned new words, of course, like "potamologist" (a specialist in potamology, i.e, the study of rivers) but more interestingly, I learned them in the course of her provocative ideas about language. She tells us, for example, to "Think of English as a river. It looks like one cohesive ribbon of water, but any potamologist will tell you that rivers are actually made up of many different currents--sometimes hundreds of them. The interesting thing about rivers is, alter one of those currents and you alter the whole river, from its ecosystem to its course. Each of the currents in the river English is a different kind of English: business jargon...academic English, youth slang...Each of these currents is doing its own thing, and each is an integral part of English." (p. 60). Then there are the interesting facts that you could throw out the next time you are at a loss for conversation. Did you know that "...S goes on for-fucking-ever. Exactly 11 percent of your dictionary is made of words that begin with S." (p.111) Or that, "The Collegiate Dictionary has, as of this writing, about 170,000 entries with about 230,000 definitions, give or take, to review." (p. 117). Writing a dictionary definition (or revising one) is a complicated process. "Every entry...goes through multiple editing passes. The definer starts the job, then it's passed to a copy editor who cleans up the definer's work, then to a bunch of specialty editor: cross-reference editors, who make sure the definer hasn't used any word in the entry that isn't entered in that dictionary; etymologists, to review or write the word history; dating editors, who research and add the dates of first written use; pronunciation editors, who handle all the pronunciations in the book. Then eventually it's back to a copy editor (usually a different one from the first round, just to be safe), who will make any additional changes to the entry that cross-reference turned up, then to the final reader, who is, as the name suggests, the last person who can make editorial changes to the entry, and then off to the proofreader (who ends up, again, being a different editor from the definer and the two previous copy editors)...." (pp. 117-118).
Stampers sense of humor is dry and so appropriate for the topic, to wit, "The goal of a dictionary is to tell people what words mean and show them how they are used in the most objective, dispassionate, and robotic way possible. People do not come to the dictionary for excitement and romance; that's what encyclopedias are for." (pp. 126-127)
Some people, even those who are not professional lexicographers, really care about what goes into a dictionary. They will write letters to the company and Merriam Webster makes sure they get a response. Sometimes it is to explain how and why dictionaries are made; sometimes to correct misinformation about dating the words; sometimes to clarify usage. One correspondent has consistently submitted questions for over 20 years! And then there are the fanatics who charge Merriam Webster with perversion and worse if they write a definition not to their liking. When the dictionary added a new "sub-sense" for gay marriage to the main definition for marriage,  it elicited a "shit storm" of truly unbelievable proportions (literally hundreds of vituperative emails). As the editor who originally responded to someone querying their decision to include gay marriage, Stamper was "invited to personally rot in hell no fewer than thirteen times. I was told to get a life, get a fucking life, to fuck off and die, and also to swallow shards of glass mixed in acid." (p. 248). This all comes down to, according to Stamper, the common misconception about the role of dictionaries. Lexicographers see dictionaries as a mirror to the culture, not as the shaper of culture. She acknowledges that dictionary publishers are themselves somewhat responsible for the misconception since their early marketing efforts often touted their role as "The Voice of Authority" regarding the English language.
Most of all, however, Stamper shares her sprachgefühl and her love of language. You will not only learn about the foibles of the English language, but also learn a lot about the history of the language. And you'll have an enjoyable time in the process. Highly recommended. A special "Thank you" to friend Joan Starr for insisting I read this book.
Lots of great reviews: Publishers Weekly, The Atlantic, Kirkus. There is a great interview with Stamper and an overview of the book, complete with some cool photos, at the New York Times. And if you just can't get enough of Kory Stamper's wry wit, check out her blog: Harml-ess Drudg-ery