Erin McKean

People say to me, ‘How do I know if a word is real?’ You know, anybody who’s read a children’s book knows…

— Erin McKean

“This isn’t a thrift store… We’re not selling them something less expensive, we’re selling them something more special. We have to tell…

— Erin McKean

You don’t owe prettiness to anyone. Not to your boyfriend/spouse/partner, not to your co-workers, especially not to random men on the street.…

— Erin McKean

Almost any word can be drafted to serve as a verb, even words we think of as eternal and unchanging, stuck in…

— Erin McKean

I think we would all like to believe that every new event demands a new word. But we're environmentally conscious with our…

— Erin McKean

There are hundreds of thousands of words that aren't in any print dictionary today... because there's no space for all of them.

— Erin McKean

Uniforms are intended to make the wearer look as strong as possible. Soldiers could fight in leotards, but that's never going to…

— Erin McKean

It's difficult to choose a Word of the Year in the year that you're in. It's one of those things that hindsight…

— Erin McKean

Words are so lovable. How could you not love words?

— Erin McKean

'Aging' has been bad ever since we figured out it led to dying.

— Erin McKean

And I don't like people who eat powdered doughnuts. I don't car how careful you are, they're just plain messy. I can't…

— Erin McKean

If words are doing their job, then their novelty will not be the most noticeable thing about them.

— Erin McKean

There are very few good ways to get publicity for a dictionary.

— Erin McKean

Lexicographers are language reporters.

— Erin McKean

“The rule is, don't speak of the dead, not don't speak ill of the dead's terrible relatives.”

— Erin McKean

Serendipity is when you find things you weren't looking for because finding what you are looking for is so damned difficult.

— Erin McKean

We think people go to a dictionary to find out what a word means. Most people go to the dictionary because they…

— Erin McKean

Writers who hedge their use of unfamiliar, infrequent, or informal words with 'I know that's not a real word,' hoping to distance…

— Erin McKean

If you're talking about how you promoted synergy in an organization, that could mean you just got everybody together for donuts twice…

— Erin McKean

People say jargon is a bad thing, but it's really a shortcut vocabulary professionals use to understand one another.

— Erin McKean

Singing when no one else is around is always good. I especially like belters. Good, loud singing is probably better medicine than…

— Erin McKean

I also think people should never turn down an opportunity to hold a baby. There's something about the feeling of a new…

— Erin McKean

if you want someone to stop listening to you go ahead and yell. If you want them to listen to every word,…

— Erin McKean

What I'm interested in is how people are reading and writing English.

— Erin McKean

Experiences is just paying attention as time passes.

— Erin McKean