Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries

I zoomed through this book. I love Kory Stamper's writing style, and I like how she tackles the difference between how laypeople perceive the dictionary and how those to actually put the dictionary together do, that is, with a lot of snark.

“To the etymologist, ‘origin unknown' means that while there may be theories regarding a word's origin, there's no direct evidence that those theories are true. But to most people, ‘origin unknown' seems to mean ‘Please send us your best guess as to where this word came from, because we are idiots.'“

I can forgive her snark because there's something about laypeople commenting on one's field of expertise that can be so hilarious and yet, depending on how often people feel the need to comment on it, so entirely irritating. Like, when I tell people I'm a librarian, a lot of people say, “Wow, you must love reading!” Which has yet to become too irritating for me, and I guess I'm more inclined to be chill about it because every time I meet someone who tells me they're an archaeologist I say “Cool, I love Indiana Jones”, even though I can see how instantly their face falls with the weariness of explaining how Indiana Jones was a shit archaeologist and those movies are nothing like the reality etc.
So I also loved reading about how the dictionary is perceived by dictionary editors, especially in terms of “antedaters”, people who write into the dictionary to give an example of a citation where the word was used earlier than the date the dictionary indicates. In some cases these are actually helpful and correct, and the dictionary is updated (eventually) accordingly, but in a lot of cases these are from people who are trying to “one-up” the dictionary and haven't actually thought about the sense in which a word is being used. For example, the word actress (a woman who is an actor - dated to 1680) has a more archaic sense of “a woman that takes part in any affair” - if you found a citation of the word dated between 1586 and 1680, you couldn't use it to prove the dictionary wrong since the word wasn't used in the sense we're looking at in that time.
Basically I just loved reading about how many people write into the dictionary for so many different reasons. People are great/the worst.

I also really liked Stamper's way of describing the slog of defining a word like take. It reminded me of the time I was trying to track down primary sources and I'd spend hours on a computer and then hours in library basements, only to finally find the journal issue I was looking for (and have the cover fall apart in my hand because it's so old) and flip to the article I was looking for a find that THAT ONE PAGE I NEEDED had been torn out who knows how long ago. But then, also the relief and joy of finishing a task that had taken so much of your time and sanity. Stamper really got that down. It makes me want to do something that seems futile.