“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
“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
“Whenever you try and simplify how people speak, it's just hard to squish them into a simple rule. Language doesn't work that way.” PeopleTryingSpeakLanguageSimpleSimplify Author:Kory Stamper
“We want to emulate the educated class, even if we don't think of educated people as a class these days.” PeopleThinkingEducated Author:Kory Stamper
“I don't know that I would say words are more political now, particularly after Donald Trump has come into office. I will say that what I notice is that people pay more attention to the words that politicians use. They really want to understand the full nuance, the connotative meanings of those words.” PeoplePoliticalAttentionPoliticianOffice 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
“We're not saying that marriage, the thing, is now open to anyone of any gender. We are saying, when the word marriage is used in this particular context, this is what it means. And it was the same with "alternative facts." That was a big one. "Feminism" was a big one. And when people came to the "marriage" entry, because we live in the Internet age, they either immediately fire off an email to us saying they're horrified at how commie-pinko-liberal we are, or they fire off an e-mail saying thank you so much for speaking truth to power.” PeopleMeanAgeFeminismInternetGenderSaying Thank You 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
“Lexicographers may be nerds who don't like human contact, but we're still people.” PeopleNerd 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
“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
“You will hear people say the C-word. Except, it's a regional language: in British English, c - t has much less of an inflammatory sense than it does in North American English. You can hear someone on British TV called "a c - ting monkey" or a man being called a c - t. The particular fascination of profanity is how culturally specific it is and how it evolves.” PeopleMenLanguageEvolveProfanity Author:Kory Stamper
