From sesquipedalian to hootamaganzy

Before the ubiquity of computers, I bet 90% of households had a dictionary. I may be optimistic on the percentage, but a goodly number of families had them. Think about the times you looked up a word. You grabbed the dictionary, found the definition and moved on. I know in my case, I never thought about all the work that went in to the precise wording of the definition, or how many people pored over the word before finally signing off on it.

Well, I just finished a new book that explores lexicography. "Word By Word" by Kory Stamper, a lexicographer at Merriam-Webster in Massachusetts, allows us to enter the world of definitions and the lexicographers who attend to such matters.

Along the way she discusses various interesting words and how the were finally defined, such as "irregardless" (she's a bit begrudging about that one),  "posh" (No, it's not Port Out., Starboard Home), "it's" vs. "its," etc.

One of the issues she brings up is the use of "however" at the beginning of a sentence. Apparently, in some circles, that's a Bozo no-no. I never knew that it was a problem. I've been starting sentences with "however" my entire life!

Here's a little tidbit:  The word "pumpernickel" comes from an earlier word meaning "fart goblin." How about that!

Another subject she addresses is that we all have favorite words. One of hers is in the title of this post, "hootamaganzy." It means "A hooded merganser." "Sesquipedalian" has been a favorite of mine my whole life. It means, "Having many syllables" (There's something meta about that) or "Given to or characterized by the use of long words." Ms. Stamper even mentions the word in her book! Somehow my life is complete. What's one of your favorite words?

One thing I learned that I will never forget is when the word is broken up with the dots, it's not the separating of the word by syllable, but the points where a word can be broken with a hyphen at the end of a line. I really had never thought about it.  The dashes you see in the word elsewhere are the syllable breaks.

The folks at Merriam-Webster will respond to the public's questions regarding words. They will answer if it's within their purview, and let you know if it's not.

I found the book to be very entertaining and full of interesting details about the world of lexicography. This is a must read for logophiles of all ages.