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A review by bailey_bea
Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper
5.0
"Etymological fallacy is the worst sort of pedantry: a meaningless personal opinion trying to dress itself up as concern for preserving historical principles. It misses that language change itself is a historical principle: a language that doesn't change is a dead language, and as much as etymological fallacists seem to love the purity of Latin, you'll notice that none of them have abandoned that whore English for it."
Word by Word is a love letter to the English language, and I couldn't get enough. I have a whole new appreciation for dictionaries and the tenacious lexicographers who bring them into existence. And while I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I'm not cut out to be a lexicographer, I could kiss Stamper for illuminating the craft of lexicography with wit, intelligence, and panache.
Word by Word is a love letter to the English language, and I couldn't get enough. I have a whole new appreciation for dictionaries and the tenacious lexicographers who bring them into existence. And while I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I'm not cut out to be a lexicographer, I could kiss Stamper for illuminating the craft of lexicography with wit, intelligence, and panache.