Lexicographers may be nerds who don't like human contact, but we're still people. — Kory Stamper Language Copy Share Image
“This is a question sent to the dictionary, after all: this is serious shit.” — Kory Stamper Copy Share Image
“Ei,” he said, shaking his head. “En puhu suomea.” No, he said in Finnish. I don’t speak Finnish.” — Kory Stamper Finnish Copy Share Image
“In the sixteenth century, English was established as a language of record;” — Kory Stamper Copy Share Image
“Then Eric talked for half an hour about the Albanian word for” — Kory Stamper Albanian Copy Share Image
We want to emulate the educated class, even if we don't think of educated people as a class these days. — Kory Stamper Copy Share Image
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… — Kory Stamper Dictionaries Copy Share Image
Words have always been political, and that means that, in many people's minds, dictionaries are political. Because that's what dictionaries do: they… — Kory Stamper Dictionary Copy Share Image
“Yes, this is what I want to do. I want to sit alone in a cubicle all day and think about words… — Kory Stamper Cubicle Copy Share Image
“ALL words are made-up: Do you think we find them fully formed on the ocean floor, or mine from them in some… — Kory Stamper Ocean Copy Share Image
“Editors are, at heart, twelve: if we can construe something as a fart or sex (or a fart AND sex) joke, we… — Kory Stamper Writer Copy Share Image
“It is best, in fact, to assume that every verbal illustration you write will offend someone, somewhere, at some point.” — Kory Stamper Dictionary Copy Share Image
“He offered a better paraphrase one day when I was complaining about an entry: “Words are stubborn little fuckers.” — Kory Stamper Language Copy Share Image
“bor·bo·ryg·mus \ˌbȯr-bə-ˈrig-məs\ n, pl bor·bo·ryg·mi \-ˌmī\ : intestinal rumbling caused by moving gas (MWC11)” — Kory Stamper Copy Share Image
“Who thought that “pumpernickel” was a good name for a dark rye bread? Because when you trace the word back to its… — Kory Stamper Food Copy Share Image
You will hear people say the C-word. Except, it's a regional language: in British English, c - t has much less of… — Kory Stamper American english Copy Share Image
“Nouns can act like adjectives (“chocolate cake”); adjectives can act like nouns (“grammarians are the damned”); verbs can look like verbs (“she’s… — Kory Stamper Copy Share Image
“It is the fate of those who toil at the lower employments of life, to be rather driven by the fear of… — Kory Stamper Death Copy Share Image
Most people, if they think at all about the dictionary, think of it as this fixed object given to us from on… — Kory Stamper Dictionary Copy Share Image
“Good” has been used for almost a thousand years as an adverb, even though usage commentators and peevers have condemned this use.… — Kory Stamper Copy Share Image
“Singeth” wasn’t just a highfalutin flourish deployed to lend a sense of elevation and elegance to Shakespeare’s writings; “singeth” was a normal,… — Kory Stamper Beauty Copy Share Image
“use words that fit the context, to learn when to use high-flown language and when to use down-home words, and generally quit… — Kory Stamper Language Copy Share Image
“Mismatch between English’s pronunciation and its orthography is something that everyone, native speaker and learner alike, harps on. It feels like a… — Kory Stamper Poetry Copy Share Image
We're not saying that marriage, the thing, is now open to anyone of any gender. We are saying, when the word marriage… — Kory Stamper Age Copy Share Image
“We think of English as a fortress to be defended, but a better analogy is to think of English as a child.… — Kory Stamper Analogy Copy Share Image
“The editorial conference room is really nothing more than a glorified storage space, a little nook left over after the freight elevator… — Kory Stamper Copy Share Image
“Think about any foreign language you’ve learned (or attempted to). What’s the first thing you learn? Usually how to say “Hello, my… — Kory Stamper Foreign language Copy Share Image
“Like many things that are claimed as Western inventions, grammar was first practiced in the East. According to scholars, there is a… — Kory Stamper Language Copy Share Image
“I was working from home at the time and sometimes indulged in a little wander around my yard, a hard reset before… — Kory Stamper Nice weather Copy Share Image
What makes autocorrect really interesting for a lexicographer is we read in a very weird way. A lot of times we'll catch… — Kory Stamper Copy Share Image
“Take the oft-repeated injunction to get “its” and “it’s” straight. Everyone claims it’s remarkably easy to remember that “its” is possessive and… — Kory Stamper King james bible Copy Share Image
“After Bailey came Samuel Johnson, His Cantankerousness. Son of a London bookseller, a university dropout, afflicted with depression and what modern doctors… — Kory Stamper Books Copy Share Image
“The spectrum of hatred against “irregardless” might be unmatched. Everyone claims to hate the word “moist,” but the dislike is general and… — Kory Stamper Language Copy Share Image
“Standard English as it is presented by grammarians and pedants is a dialect that is based on a mostly fictional, static, and… — Kory Stamper Copy Share Image
Whenever you try and simplify how people speak, it's just hard to squish them into a simple rule. Language doesn't work that… — Kory Stamper Language Copy Share Image
“It’s not all “molly” and “asshat.” The etymologies of some words are, for the lexicographer and average joe alike, boring.” — Kory Stamper Average joe Copy Share Image
“It wasn’t story (good or bad) that pulled me in; it was English itself, the way it felt in my braces-caged mouth… — Kory Stamper English Copy Share Image
I make the case in the book that Standard English, that language we all aspire to live and move and have our… — Kory Stamper Book Copy Share Image
![“Think about any foreign language you’ve learned (or attempted to). What’s the first thing you learn? Usually how to say “Hello, my name is [Kory]. How are you?” You don’t learn the word for “name,” and the learn the conjugation of “be” (and good thing, too, because it is stubbornly irregular in…” quote by Kory Stamper](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/22d/kory-stamper-11455_foreign-language_think-about-any-foreign-language-you-ve_2635008.jpg)
