Lexicography Quotes

By the time the traditionally male lexicographers become interested in looking at fashion words, their origins are lost in the mists of time.

When I need to know the meaning of a word, I look it up in a dictionary.

The one thing - apart from assumptions about German - that I have to challenge frequently is people assuming that lexicographers are fierce protectors of the language when in fact our job is not to put a lid on it.

In all my years in 'Countdown's' Dictionary Corner, the subject most guaranteed to rankle with our viewers is the presence of Americanisms in the dictionary.

Wikipedia's a collaborative experiment akin to Simon Winchester's account of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary in 'The Professor and the Madman,' which outlines James Murray's mission to produce the tome in the 19th century.

Don’t you love the Oxford Dictionary? When I first read it, I thought it was a really really long poem about everything.

I bought a dictionary. First thing I did was, I looked up the word "dictionary", and it said "you're an asshole".

Lexicographer: a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words.

The dictionary is, however, only a rough draft.

The words are easy - most of them have already been invented.

I used to keep a dictionary and work with it and then I realized there are more words that exist in the English language than there are in this dictionary.

A dictionary can embrace only a small part of the vast tapestry of a language.

It contained eighteen thousand manuscripts on the sciences of antiquity alone. The books were arranged on shelves all around the rooms. The shelving was partitioned and enclosed behind shutters equipped with locks and bolts. In all there were more than one hundred thousand bound volumes. These included works on the laws of every religion, treatises on grammar and lexicography, collections of traditional lore, history books, royal biographies, essays on astronomy, works relating to the supernatural, alchemical research, all in various forms of writing.

As sheer casual reading matter, I still find the English dictionary the most interesting book in our language.

I'm a massive fan of the dictionary.

There's no such thing as an unabridged dictionary.

I do love perusing the dictionary to find how many words I don't use - words that have specific, sharp, focused meaning. I also love the sound of certain words. I love the sound of the word pom-pom.

Words fascinate me. They always have. For me, browsing in a dictionary is like being turned loose in a bank.

A dictionary is merely the universe arranged in alphabetical order.

Words have a genealogy and it's easier to trace the evolution of a single word than the evolution of a language.

I'm very sensitive to the English language. I studied the dictionary obsessively when I was a kid and collect old dictionaries. Words, I think, are very powerful and they convey an intention.

If you have a big enough dictionary, just about everything is a word.

KISS, n. A word invented by the poets as a rhyme for "bliss." It is supposed to signify, in a general way, some kind of rite or ceremony appertaining to a good understanding; but the manner of its performance is unknown to this lexicographer.

Alphabet Juice is the book Roy Blount was born to write, which considering his prodigious talent, is saying a lot. Did you know that the word LAUGH is linguistically related to chickens and pie? This is the book that any of us who urgently, passionately love words-to read them, roll them over the tongue and learn their life stories while laughing and eating chicken and pie-were lucky enough to be born to read.

I’ve always been a word guy, I like weird words and I like American slang and all that and words that are no longer being used… I like to drag them out of the box and wave them around… this is an interesting one, it’s amazing how in addition to punctuation just a little pause in the wrong place can just completely transform the meaning of something.