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Author
Publisher
Princeton University Press
Pub. Date
[2019]
Language
English
Description
A compelling history of the national conflicts that resulted, from efforts to produce the first definitive American dictionary of English
In The Dictionary Wars, Peter Martin recounts the patriotic fervor in the early American republic to produce a definitive national dictionary that would rival Samuel Johnson's 1755 Dictionary of the English Language. But, what began as a cultural war of independence from Britain devolved into a battle among lexicographers,...
Author
Publisher
Alfred A. Knopf
Pub. Date
2023.
Language
English
Description
For the first time ever, this thrilling literary detective story, doubling as a celebration of words, language, people and one of mankind's greatest achievements, unravels the mystery of the contributors from around the world who, for over seventy years, helped to codify the way we read, write and speak.
Author
Publisher
Pantheon Books
Pub. Date
[2017]
Language
English
Description
Have you ever tried to define the word "is?" Do you have strong feelings about the word (and, yes, it is a word) "irregardless?" Did you know that OMG was first used in 1917, in a letter to Winston Churchill? These are the questions that keep lexicographers up at night. While most of us might take dictionaries for granted, the process of writing dictionaries is in fact as lively and dynamic as language itself. Kory Stamper cracks open the complex,...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
"In 1934, Webster's Second was the great gray eminence of American dictionaries, with 600,000 entries and numerous competitors but no rivals. It served as the all-knowing guide to the world of grammar and information, a kind of one-stop reference work. In 1961, Webster's Third came along and ignited an unprecedented controversy in America's newspapers, universities, and living rooms. The new dictionary's editor, Philip Gove, had overhauled Merriam's...
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