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
“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
“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
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
“Who thought that “pumpernickel” was a good name for a dark rye bread? Because when you trace the word back to its… — Kory Stamper Good Name 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 Chocolate cake 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
It's difficult to sit down and write a letter back saying, "you know what, even if we remove the word from the… — Kory Stamper Dictionary Copy Share Image
The history of English is full of that, lots of things done with good intentions that 200 years down the road have… — Kory Stamper Done Copy Share Image
“Removing racial slurs from the dictionary will not eliminate racism; removing “injustice” from the dictionary will not bring about justice. If it… — Kory Stamper Justice Copy Share Image
There's a measure of prescriptivism and descriptivism in every dictionary. Prescriptivism believes that the language should mirror the best practices of English,… — Kory Stamper Believe Copy Share Image
“Under ordinary circumstances, we learn to speak before we learn to read, and anyone who has tried to learn a foreign language… — Kory Stamper Comprehension 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
“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
“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 Copy Share Image
A lot of people thought oh, we caught the dictionary in racism, or all it takes is a whole bunch of people… — Kory Stamper Dictionary Copy Share Image
“Most words come into being first in speech, then in private writing, and then in public, published writing, which means that if… — Kory Stamper Communication Copy Share Image
“Person, Place, Thing (Noun); Describes Action (Verb); Modifies Nouns (Adjective); Answers the W Questions (Adverb); Joins Words Together (Conjunction); Things We Say… — Kory Stamper Language Copy Share Image
“Ah, but those horrid initialisms, naysayers cry—“LOL” and “OMG”—surely a mark of modern laziness, moral decline, and the end of Good English… — Kory Stamper Decline English Copy Share Image
Language is the primary way we communicate with each other, and we have really strong feelings about what words mean, and about… — Kory Stamper College Copy Share Image
It's very easy, when things like the gay marriage write-in happen, to get sick of how people view language and say, "ah,… — Kory Stamper Children Copy Share Image
The initial 18th-, 19th-century intention was to give the less-educated lower classes a way to move up into this new, rising middle… — Kory Stamper Businessman 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 Interesting Copy Share Image
Lexicographers may be nerds who don't like human contact, but we're still people. — Kory Stamper Nerd Copy Share Image
“This is a question sent to the dictionary, after all: this is serious shit.” — Kory Stamper Question Copy Share Image
“Dude, do you even English? That defining job is hella bad.” — Kory Stamper Defining Copy Share Image
“In the sixteenth century, English was established as a language of record;” — Kory Stamper Century English 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
We want to emulate the educated class, even if we don't think of educated people as a class these days. — Kory Stamper Educated Copy Share Image
“Then Eric talked for half an hour about the Albanian word for” — Kory Stamper Albanian 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
“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
