April 12, 2013
Good Reading for Wordsmiths
We’ve come a long way, wordsmiths, from 1962, and English just keeps going on changing.
Good reading about the word time warp in the article, "A half-century in language change" at the Economist on April 8, 2013.
Thanks to Julie Kuma for the tip.
And for the skulduggery of dictionary making and links to other fascinating stories about dictionaries and words, see David Skinner’s invitation to read his recent The Story of Ain’t.
The back cover blurb says it best. Simon Winchester wrote, "It takes true brilliance to lift the arid tellings of lexicographic fussing into the readable realm of the thriller and the bodice-ripper. With his riveting account of the furious rows over the publication in the sixties of Wester's Third [dictionary], David Skinner has done precisely this. . . ." Though the book does bog down every once in a while, it is the fault of the stuffy characters, not usually his delivery. A grammarian, or any wordsmith working in English, will enjoy this social history and acerbic commentary on American class and snobbery.
Courtesy of Kay Vreeland
Interested in buying the Kindle edition from Amazon Japan or Amazon U.S.