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English
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"Brimming with intelligence and personality, a vastly entertaining account of how dictionaries are made - a must read for word mavens. Have you ever tried to define the word "is?" Do you have strong feelings about the word (and, yes, it is a word) "irregardless?" Did you know that OMG was first used in 1917, in a letter to Winston Churchill? These are the questions that keep lexicographers up at night. While most of us might take dictionaries for...
Author
Language
English
Description
The dusty files of a venerable dictionary publisher, a hidden cache of coded clues, a story written by a phantom author, and an unsolved murder in a gritty urban park--all collide memorably in Emily Arsenault's magnificent debut at once a teasing literary puzzle an ingenious suspense novel and an exploration of definitions: of words of who we are and of the stories we choose to define us.
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
Explores the life of Noah Webster and examines how his dictionaries and textbooks forever transformed American language and culture. Outlines Webster's other achievements, such as his push towards universal education and the abolition of slavery, and features full-color illustrations throughout.
Author
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
For the first time ever, this thrilling literary detective story, doubling as a celebration of words, language, people and one of mankind's greatest achievements, unravels the mystery of the contributors from around the world who, for over seventy years, helped to codify the way we read, write and speak.
Author
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
"Peter Winceworth, a disaffected Victorian lexicographer, inserts false entries into a dictionary -- violating and subverting the dictionary's authority -- in an attempt to assert some sense of individual purpose and artistic freedom. In the present day, Mallory, a young overworked and underpaid intern employed by the dictionary's publishing house, is tasked with uncovering these entries before the work is digitised. As the novel progresses and their...
Author
Language
English
Description
"Esme is born into a world of words. Motherless and ever curious, she spends her childhood in Oxford in the room where her father and fellow lexicographers are collecting words for the first complete edition of the Oxford English Distionary. While they work, young Esme begins to collect other words, ones that have been discarded or neglected by the dictionary men. As she grows up, Esme realizes that words and meanings relating to women's and common...
Author
Language
English
Description
The creation of the Oxford English Dictionary began in 1857, took seventy years to complete, drew from tens of thousands of brilliant minds, and organized the sprawling language into 414,825 precise definitions. But hidden within the rituals of its creation is a fascinating and mysterious story - a story of two remarkable men whose strange twenty-year relationship lies at the core of this historic undertaking. Professor James Murray, an astonishingly...
Author
Language
English
Description
The story of "shy young Peter Mark Roget, [for whom] books were the best companions--and it wasn't long before Peter began writing his own book. But he didn't write stories; he wrote lists. Peter took his love for words and turned it to organizing ideas and finding exactly the right word to express just what he thought. His lists grew and grew, eventually turning into one of the most important reference books of all time"--Amazon.com.
13) The word detective: searching for the meaning of it all at the Oxford English Dictionary : a memoir
Author
Language
English
Description
"What do you call the part of a dog's back it can't scratch? Can you drink a glass of balderdash? And if, serendipitously, you find yourself in Serendip, then where exactly are you? The answers to all of these questions can be found in the Oxford English Dictionary, the definitive record of the English language. And there is no better guide to the dictionary's many wonderments, its quirks, and its quiddities than the former chief editor of the OED,...
Author
Language
English
Description
In this portrait of Samuel Johnson, David Nokes positions the great thinker in his rightful place as an active force in the Enlightenment, not a mere recorder or performer, and demonstrates how his interaction with life impacted his work. This biography addresses his life and action through the hitherto unexplored perspectives of such major players as Johnson's wife, Tetty; Hester Thrale, in whose household he resided for seventeen years while working...
Author
Language
Español
Description
The story of "shy young Peter Mark Roget, [for whom] books were the best companions--and it wasn't long before Peter began writing his own book. But he didn't write stories; he wrote lists. Peter took his love for words and turned it to organizing ideas and finding exactly the right word to express just what he thought. His lists grew and grew, eventually turning into one of the most important reference books of all time"--Amazon.com.
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