A Way with Words...

As I flipped through the Style&Culture section of today's edition of the LA Times, an article about the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary caught my eye.

Confession time: I love words. I am a linguistic nerd in all senses of the word. I took a linguistics class this past year and fell in love with it so much so that while my atmospheric science and astronomy books were promptly listed (and sold) on Amazon, I have retained my linguistics book for my personal library.

Back to the article, it was talking about how words like "snitty" (which means disagreeably agitated) and "regift" are on the list to be added to the new edition of the collegiate dictionary. I always thought the spoken frequency of a word determined eligibility for the dictionary. BUT as it turns out, the word has to be cited in print a good amount of times to even be considered.

So to find new words in print, the employees of Merriam Webster spend their days sitting at their cubicles flipping through all manners of print. Everything from fashion magazines to science and health journals. When they spot a new word, they write it down on an index card that is entered into a database later. Around this time, they go through the database to find new additions to the next edition of the dictionary.

If I don't make it in journalism, I really think that I would enjoy working for a dictionary company. I don't know what kind of degree/qualifications you have to have in order to work there but give me a quiet place to read and a stack of mags and I'm there. I can see some potential glossy burnout. But hopefully the variety of reading material will prevent that. Imagine what an informed person I would be.