What’s missing from your dictionary? or The power of not knowing.

By Erin McKean May 1, 2011 – Published in the Boston Globe:

Consider the slight but significant difference between these two sentences: “The word failure isn’t in the dictionary” and “The word failure isn’t in his dictionary.” With the first, the blame falls on the hapless dictionary editor (who works, of course, on what lexicographer Rosamund Moon has called the UAD — “the Unidentified Authorizing Dictionary”).

Here’s a link to the whole article. Enjoy it.

Erin McKean is a lexicographer and founder of Wordnik.com. E-mail her at erin@wordnik.com.

 

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