Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries

by Kory Stamper

“sprachgefühl,” a German word we’ve stolen into English that means “a feeling for language.”

Lexicography moves so slowly that scientists classify it as a solid. When you finish defining, you must copyedit; when you finish copyediting, you must proofread; when you finish proofreading, you must proofread again, because there were changes and we need to double-check. When the dictionary finally hits the market, there is no grand party or celebration. (Too loud, too social.) We’re already working on the next update to that dictionary, because language has moved on. There will never be a break. A dictionary is out of date the minute that it’s done.

So where do these rules come from, if not from actual use? Most of them are the personal peeves, codified into law, of dead white men of yore.