“Under ordinary circumstances, we learn to speak before we learn to read, and anyone who has tried to learn a foreign language… — Kory Stamper Foreign language Copy Share Image
“Then Eric talked for half an hour about the Albanian word for” — Kory Stamper 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 Thousand years 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
“We think of English as a fortress to be defended, but a better analogy is to think of English as a child.… — Kory Stamper Children 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
“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
“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
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
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
“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
“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
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
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
“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
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
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
“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
“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
“Editors are, at heart, twelve: if we can construe something as a fart or sex (or a fart AND sex) joke, we… — Kory Stamper 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
“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 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
“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
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
