This book is just chock full of interesting nuggets of information (case in point: I considered titling this post “Did you know that the word “pumpernickel” comes from German for “fart goblin”?). In some ways the book is more interesting than it seems like it has any right to be. A book about writing dictionaries? Sounds boring, but Kory Stamper writes with humor (see post title) and an informal style that makes it an interesting and entertaining read.
Each chapter focuses on an element of dictionary-writing, such as determining word pronunciation and how small words (e.g., “take”) can be harder to define than multisyllabic words. Stamper titles each chapter with a word that she uses as a case example, such as “Nuclear” for the chapter on pronunciation. Throughout the book, she stresses that dictionaries are, currently, meant to be descriptive, not prescriptive, and how most people don’t know this and expect dictionaries to be the authority on what words “should” mean or should even exist as “real” words. For example, a lot of people are still mad that “irregardless” is in the dictionary, but it gets used often enough in writing that lexicographers felt it needed to be in the dictionary, regardless of whether it “should” be used in writing.
There were a couple of analogies that didn’t work for me and distracted, and in my mind detracted, from the reading. I didn’t really get comparing lexicography to surgery or cubicles to storefront churches. But aside from those minor instances, I enjoyed the whole book and recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in language.
