“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
“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
“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
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
“Under ordinary circumstances, we learn to speak before we learn to read, and anyone who has tried to learn a foreign language… — Kory Stamper Copy Share Image
I certainly self-police my language depending on who I'm talking to. I try to be very careful about using filler words, about… — 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
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
“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
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
“Person, Place, Thing (Noun); Describes Action (Verb); Modifies Nouns (Adjective); Answers the W Questions (Adverb); Joins Words Together (Conjunction); Things We Say… — 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
The history of English is full of that, lots of things done with good intentions that 200 years down the road have… — Kory Stamper 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
With "marriage," the word gets applied to same-sex marriages by proponents and opponents alike. That means the word itself is changing, and… — Kory Stamper Authority 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 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