The Dictionary’s Phantom: Story of ‘Dord’
What happens when a word that doesn't exist appears in the dictionary? For thirteen years, the non-word 'dord' lived in the pages of Webster's Second New International, defined simply as…
Tag: lexicography
The Tyranny of the Alphabet: How We Order Knowledge
Alphabetical order feels as natural as breathing, but this rigid system is a historical accident that silently shapes how we find and interpret knowledge. From dictionaries that separate 'apple' from…
Why Is English Spelling So Weird?
Ever wonder why 'knight' has a 'k' or 'island' has an 's'? The answer isn't that English is illogical, but that its spelling is a fossil record of its turbulent…
The Interrobang’s Brief, Glorious Life
What do you get when you combine a question mark and an exclamation point? In the 1960s, frustrated ad man Martin K. Speckter answered that question by inventing the interrobang…
The Sadesan Hoax: A Language That Never Was
In the early days of the internet, a mysterious language called Sadesan appeared, promising a lost branch of the Indo-European family tree. But this convincing tongue, complete with a complex…
The Great Tea Divide: Cha vs. Te
Ever wonder why it's 'chai' in Moscow but 'tea' in London? The answer lies not in a dictionary, but on a map of ancient trade. Discover how the overland Silk…
The Boontling Lingo of Boonville
Deep in a remote California valley, a community invented its own secret lingo called Boontling to gossip and joke in plain sight. This unique American argot, with colorful phrases like…
The Politics of Dictionaries
Ever wonder who decides when a word like 'rizz' is official? This post delves into the surprisingly political world of dictionaries, exploring how lexicographers navigate cultural debates, from internet slang…
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
Have you ever felt a longing for a place you've never been, or the bittersweetness of a fleeting moment you couldn't describe? This post explores "The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows,"…
How Dictionaries Decide Who Lives and Who Dies
Ever wonder how words like "rizz" become official while others fade away into obscurity? This post goes behind the scenes of lexicography, revealing the data-driven process that determines when a…
The Billion-Word Crystal Ball: How Corpus Linguistics Predicts the Future of Language
Ever wonder how new words like 'rizz' make it into the dictionary or why grammar rules seem to change over time? The answer lies in corpus linguistics, a fascinating field…
The Fight for Purity: Inside the Académie Française and the Quest to Protect the French Language
For nearly 400 years, the forty "immortals" of the Académie Française have stood as the official guardians of the French language. But in a modern world dominated by English loanwords…
The Surgeon and the Lexicographer: The Unlikely Genius Who Built the OED From an Asylum
The creation of the Oxford English Dictionary relied on thousands of volunteers, but none were as brilliant or enigmatic as Dr. W.C. Minor. From his cell in the Broadmoor Asylum…