About this item
"We think of English as a fortress to be defended, but a better analogy is to think of English as a child. We love and nurture it into being, and once it gains gross motor skills, it starts going exactly where we don't want it to go: it heads right for the goddamned electrical sockets." With wit and irreverence, Merriam-Webster lexicographer Kory Stamper cracks open the obsessive world of dictionary writing, from the agonizing decisions about what to define and how to do it to the knotty questions of ever-changing word usage. Filled with fun facts - for example, the first documented usage of "OMG" was in a letter to Winston Churchill - and Stamper's own stories from the linguistic front lines (including how she became America's foremost "irregardless" apologist, despite loathing the word) , Word by Word is an endlessly entertaining look at the wonderful complexities and eccentricities of the English language.
About the Author
Kory Stamper is a lexicographer (that is, a writer and editor of dictionaries) who worked for nearly two decades at Merriam-Webster (the dictionary) . She has written and appeared in the "Ask the Editor" video series at Merriam-Webster, and has traveled around the world giving talks and lectures on language and lexicography. Her writing has appeared in a number of publications, including The Washington Post, The Guardian and The New York Times. You can find her blog at harmlessdrudgery.com. A medievalist by training, she knows a number of languages, most of them dead. She drinks more coffee and owns more dictionaries than is good for anyone.
