“There are occasions, however, when even S holds a secret delight or two in the form of a pink, such as the one I found among the citations (or "cits" for short) for "sex kitten": sex kitten sex pot There is no essential difference in these defs [definitions], but they're not the same. Some differentiation shd be made. The pink was written by one of our former physical science editors infamous for commenting as brusquely as possible on things beyond his remit... Another one of our science editors who was reviewing the batch later was apparently irritated by this note, and decided to comment on what he no doubt saw as needless meddling. His typewritten response to the note about "sex kitten" reads, "I will no doubt regret saying this but I think you have misconstrued the meaning of 'physical' science somewhere along here." But a pink's a pink. Steve acted on it for the Tenth, adding the word "young" to the definition for "sex kitten.” HumorDictionaryDefinitionPhysical ScienceSex Kitten Book:Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries Source: Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries
“Most people, if they think at all about the dictionary, think of it as this fixed object given to us from on high. It is the thing that legitimizes language and makes language real. You never think that it's actually compiled by living, breathing nerds like me. When you realize that it's compiled by people, it becomes a different thing, a different kind of document.” PeopleThinkingKindDifferentRealLanguageRealizingDifferent KindsNerdDictionary Author:Kory Stamper
“There's a measure of prescriptivism and descriptivism in every dictionary. Prescriptivism believes that the language should mirror the best practices of English, and editors are prescriptivist in so far as they don't want to let things they consider to be inelegant or ungrammatical into print.” BelieveLanguagePrintDictionary Author:Kory Stamper
“Back in the 19th century, our marketing folks decided to play up the refined usage angle because prescriptivism was very popular: our dictionary is where you go to learn anything about anything. That really set the tone in North America for how people responded to dictionaries.” PeopleMarketingDictionary19th CenturyVery Popular Author:Kory Stamper
“Words have always been political, and that means that, in many people's minds, dictionaries are political. Because that's what dictionaries do: they do words.” MindMeanPoliticalDictionary Author:Kory Stamper
“I think when dictionaries define words, there's a sort of hair-splitting that to most people doesn't make any sense, which is we're not describing what a thing is.” PeopleThinkingDictionary Author:Kory Stamper
“It's very easy, when things like the gay marriage write-in happen, to get sick of how people view language and say, "ah, come on it's just a dictionary." But then you hear from people who say if you take out "retarded" it won't exist anymore, and there will be no slurs for people to call my child. And that's just heartrending.” PeopleChildrenLanguageEasyGaySickMy ChildrenGay MarriageDictionaryRetarded Author:Kory Stamper
“It's difficult to sit down and write a letter back saying, "you know what, even if we remove the word from the dictionary, people will still continue to use it." That's the tightrope that we walk - "gay marriage" is another example, or the word "nude."” PeopleWritingDifficultGayGay MarriageDictionary Author:Kory Stamper
“Language is a signifier - it points to something. But those somethings change sometimes. Where the line comes down is that change is not in the dictionary first, it's not: change the signifier and the signified will go away.” SometimesLanguageGoing AwayThings ChangeDictionary Author:Kory Stamper
“A lot of people thought oh, we caught the dictionary in racism, or all it takes is a whole bunch of people saying that a word is bad for the dictionary to change it. That's not the case. For nude, things that are called nude color, that color palate has broadened very recently, in the last maybe seven to 10 years, and now covers all skin tones.” PeopleRacismSkinsSevenDictionary Author:Kory Stamper
“With "marriage," the word gets applied to same-sex marriages by proponents and opponents alike. That means the word itself is changing, and we reflect this change. But because of the idea that the dictionary is the objective voice of authority over culture and knowledge, it reads like approval. It's not a helpful way of looking at lexicography.” MeanCultureAuthorityHelpfulDictionary Author:Kory Stamper
