What's a dictionary writer's favourite word?
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- Опубликовано: 2 июн 2024
- I had a fascinating conversation with Merriam-Webster lexicographer Peter Sokolowski and now you get to watch it! Find out...
📕 A dictionary writer's favourite word
🦨 What a "skunked" word is
💃🏼 What FABULOUS actually means
👩💻 How ChatGPT could change dictionaries
📚 Whether it's getting easier to get a word in the dictionary
Enjoy!
Check me out on Twitter & TikTok:
/ robwordsyt
/ robwords
I was going to say this was “fabulous,” but then I was going to switch it to “very good,” but that didn’t work, either. I literally can’t say how good it is!
Clever Haha
Figuratively
@@666t Oh, I'm sure he literally meant literally. :>
I'm bemused by this comment 😂
Good spectrum
_____________
Furries
Trash
Hated
Bad
Overrated
Manly
Eh
Medium
Good
Great
Very good
Excellent
Fabulous
Marvelous
Granted
TREMENDOUS
UNREAL
❤
👍
It's a fun coincidence that he's talking about how a corpus tends to underrepresent words for the human body when the word "corpus" itself is the Latin word for the body.
i never thought a lexicographer would be such a joyful and amazing person 😄😄
Why not? Weirdly niche prejudice to hold against a group of people. 🤔
As I love language, I love this channel. You have the most important quality of a teacher, the ability to instill your enthusiasm to your students.
I used to collect dictionaries. I recall one instance on an internet message forum many moons ago, with an argument between one American, a Canadian (me) and an English person. The Englis person and the Canadian were trying to explain to the American that something someone had said was not in fact an insult, but he would have none of it. So, I got out my trusty Canadian Gage dictionary, my Miriam Webster American dictionary, and my pocket OED. It turned out that the American usage of the word in question (which I don't remember now 20+ years later) was completely opposite of how the same word is used in Canadian and English English.
Dictionaries are fun! I also loved the book "The Professor and the Madman". Highly recommend!
Awesome. Thank you for the sauce, Musing With Reba.
I remember hearing this of the word "homely." If you call someone that in the UK, it means something like "cozy" but in the US, it means "ugly," as in someone so unattractive that they probably don't want to go outside much.
@J Cortese yes, we use it both ways here in Canada. Our language is heavily influenced by being next-door neighbours to America.
I still refuse to drop the "u" in neighbour though 😁
I will never part with the dictionary my father passed down to me. It's a 1959 Webster's "New International Dictionary, Second Edition (Unabridged)".
It's massive. 12" tall, 9.5" wide, and 5" thick.
My father rescued the dictionary from being discarded by the NSA library in the late 1980s, where he worked as a Principal Linguist.
@@MrVvulf wow, that's awesome!
A lexicographer's work is never done. Literally.
As a non-native English speaker, it is more important to understand the meaning of the sentences than to get stuck on a word.
This is also important for a native English speaker, for interpreting the meaning or possible meaning of the word in the complete sentence when you receive it for the first time
Meaning is far more important when interpreting from English to another language, which I do regularly with BSL, as is context.
I am assuming when u said "stuck on a word"? That u mean get too deep on the word? Due to without understanding basic info of each word in a sentance; it would be difficult to understand the sentance.
@@dead2selfShema getting stuck on a word makes sense
its like taking one word's meaning too seriously instead of trying to understand the meaning of the sentence as a whole
This is true. I think there must come a point (like any language) where the broad meanings of sentences will give way to nuances and things natives take for granted, but it's obviously at quite an advanced level that this happens. In the mean time it's absolutely more important that you understand someone is saying "look out for that speeding car!" Than wondering if they were right to call it a "car" because it looks more like a van and then you get squished while deliberating over redundant semantics.
Becoming a lexicographer is a fascinating career choice. How many kids do you think grow up wanting to write dictionaries for a living?
I would have. I wonder how many kids are told that it's an option?
I’m currently a student studying linguistics, with a focus on morphology (how words are assembled) and my dream is to create dictionaries for endangered languages that do not have them (like many Native American languages).
Growing up, I wasn’t aware that I could even study linguistics. I was really good at algebra and language classes, but I hated having to study all the subjects I was uninterested in like history and science.
It wasn’t until my senior year of high school that I discovered the field of linguistics through a college anthropology class that was NOT THROUGH MY HIGH SCHOOL. I had to seek out the class and pay for it on my own. My high school even made it extremely difficult for me to get credit for it, even though it was an accredited university.
This summer, I’m working with a college on creating a introductory class to linguistics that could be taken by high school students. My dream is to show other kids like me that this field exists.
I would have loved going into that field. 1
At least 3
@@caseygreyson4178 Bless you! Enjoy your career! I hope it goes well. I only had the vague idea of being an English Major in college because I could only vaguely imagine writing books. Life happened, and I never finished school. I did recently publish a fantasy book,. Hopefully, I will get enough credits to become an English Colonel 😂!
Unforgettable Blackadder: Baldrick's definition of "Sea"="Big, blue, wobbly thing, that mermaids live in"
Always useful when I'm sailing.
I love that they didn't include water in the definition
For such a definition, may I offer him my most enthusiastic contrafibularities! 📕
AARDVARK!!!!!
@@smack80 Aardwolf 😉
I was fascinated by him talking about the limitations imposed on the dictionary by concerns about paper, cost, fonts etc, and it hit me that his speech patterns seem to have incorporated that too. He speaks very fast, yet is clear and concise: every syllable is as precious as every letter in his new font. A great communicator.
He's no sesquipedalian.
Fun fact: the reason "italics" exists is for that exact purpose. Italian scholars realised they could fit more text on a page without sacrificing legibility if they slanted the letters the same way, hence we call it "italics".
(This sounds like a lie, i know, but it's not)
I recall Winston Churchill made fun of the idea, that a sentence shouldn’t end in a preposition. He said, “that is the sort of thing, up with which, I will not put”. Haha.
Unfortunately, that's one of those quotes that gets attached to a famous person, despite them not ever having said it.
@@allendracabal0819 How do you know he didn’t say it?
@@johnp515 There are reliable websites which investigate quote attributions and debunk a lot of the misinformation out there.
No cap, Rob is a great interviewer. Great job letting the guest speak for himself. Excellent questions, fantastic editing, overall just awesome content. Really enjoyed having my morning coffee with you guys.
I enjoyed that more than I'd ever be prepared to admit in public. Thank goodness no one ever reads these comments.
Sorry! I do! 😉 Same here!
hahahaha.
I will make it my mission in life to always admit it. 😇🤣
In 1956 I was a high school senior in Albany, New York and I was working part time at the New York State reference library. It was the first time I came across the word sesquapedalian. It was in this context: "sesquapedalian pomposity." That expression has served me well in the many years since then.
David Silverman
Antalya, Turkey on the Mediterranean Coast
What a fascinating interview, or rather discussion. As an aside, I love that Peter speaks so quickly yet with such clarity. He obviously loves his career choice. Bravo!
Doing this interview was a fantastic idea. Thank you so much! That man is living my dream. Back in school, my German teacher (I'm German) told me to go work at Duden, the main German dictionary publisher. I was raised by a family who doesn't believe in career, so I didn't have the courage and never set foot on that path, but to this day I keep wondering how things would have been if I had gone to Duden.
They don't believe in career?? What was their future hope for you?
This sort of thing is always so sad and yet we can't all do what we want to do, huh? I really hope you enjoy what you are doing now and your life more generally! Best wishes.
Thank you! Rereading my comment, I think I worded the career part a bit awkwardly. The thing is that I grew up as a Jehovah's Witness, and they refrain from following career paths in the now. They prefer giving their now-life to god and learning something that will be useful/relevant in paradise. They see following career dreams and even things like studying for a scientific degree as useless, and growing up in such a mindset, I only ever thought I will end up doing something simple and something that is useful according to that mindset. I thought focusing on things I enjoy is futile, but I also never had any idea what I should do or become. In the end, when I grew up, I left religion behind and took the next best job opportunity. Nowadays, I have actually studied and gotten a bachelor's degree. However, I had no financial support from home (not their fault, they don't have much money) and had to live on student loans. So after finishing my degree, I again took the next best thing, as I had to start earning something again quickly. It was then that I remembered I could go to Duden or other dictionary publishers, but with publishers, at least in Germany, you have to start with a traineeship for two years or so, with very low pay, so it wasn't an option unfortunately. Right now I'm working in the management of my university, which is cool. But I just know I would have done a very good job with Duden, and seeing this man from Merriam-Webster being absolutely iconic in my opinion, it does hurt a bit.
Best wishes to you too!
@@scelestion Wow, it was interesting to read your story. Thank you for sharing, and being so open. I wish you the best of luck going forward. Don't be afraid to take risks in order to try to find and pursue your passion. It's not too late. If you have a highly logical mind, software development is always a good option, because it is a skill you can learn on your own at home with minimal expense, and is always in demand.
@@allendracabal0819 Thank you! I'm actually looking into learning about programming and coding. :) All the best to you too!
Thank you for this!! One of the best interviews I have watched. Please have him on again. I take the dictionary for granted. It is nice to see what kind of work goes into updating it.
I agree. I'm a relative newcomer to the channel, hence the lateness of this reply, and I have enjoyed all of the videos (so far) and find them variously interesting and entertaining. A few, such as this one, stand out as something extra special. Plus, the interviewee was knowledgeable, but also eloquent and engaging.
Such an eye opener when the language we use without thinking is put under the microscope. Great exploration.
Very interesting segment. Never heard of ‘word bleaching’ but the concept is familiar. Words like horrific & terrific were similar originally but now they are opposite.
They can be opposing but are commonly still synonymous.
"The statue toppled and came down with a _______ crash". You could use either in the blank and the meaning is the same.
"Terrible" and "terrific" come from the same origin, but the meaning of the root and its derivatives has shifted in the past centuries, so that "terrible" has become very negative and "terrific" has become more positive. Presumably, "terror" and "horror" were once further apart in meaning.
@@K1lostream Awesome. Thank you.
@@josueveguilla9069 "awesome" is one of my favorite examples of the meaning of a word shifting over time. Well played :)
@@setharnold9764 Thank you.
My main problem with the hyperbolic use of "literally" is that it makes it harder to say that you mean something _literally._ "Fabulous", "fantastic" and that sort of word doesn't make it harder to describe something as fable or fantasy, and the alternatives for "very" really (see what I did there?) are synonyms of it even in the strict etymological sense.
All you have to say to get them to know what you mean is that you "very literally" mean what you're saying.
I honestly can't think of a situation in which you wouldn't be able to tell whether "literally" is being used for emphasis or, well, literally. If there's any doubt, context alone should be enough to clear it out.
Props on the jacket, mate. Comfortable, attractive, classy. You made the right choice.
This man is a gem. This is a wonderful video.
I'm less than 40 seconds in and I can say with certainty the opening is the funniest one Rob's done yet! 😂😂 "Heh, Nouns! ...Oh! You just caught me reading a dictionary ...." Made me pause to laugh and type this out before continuing
Technically every book is a remix of the dictionary
Rob, the Most Fascinating discussion. Your questions were on point, your guest was eloquent, precise and delightfully verbose. You didn't waste time in self adoration - I loved your style. That was a wonderful session and I congratulate you from the bottom of my heart.
that's why I love to learn Words with Rob
Nerd
@@hanster.gun.3438 Don't be so hard on yourself.
@@hanster.gun.3438 🤔Nerd has evolved, nerd has been verbed. It is now part of a slangy verb phrase, ‘to nerd out’😱
*_"Irregardless"_* drives me up a wall! In my instance, it is because the prefix and suffix cancel each other out.
_Literally_ as a hyperbolic term? Not a problem. Using _math_ or _adult_ as a verb? Unfazed. I use them myself. Language evolves, it's the hallmark of a living tongue.
But using *_irregardless_* in cold blood like a psychopath, nah.
This was fascinating!
I like irregardless as it has more weight to it, I use their there and they're a lot speaking with a friend as they wince thinking I'm spelling it wrong in my head
"Inflammable means flammable? What a language!" - Dr Nick Riviera
Peter has managed to - just casually! - give so many examples that I, as a German, will have to listen to this interview several times to let it all soak in. Fabulous! ;-)
I'm learning German, and I wanted to say that it's very nice that feels quite literate ^^
Germans are also some of the kindest people I know
I really enjoyed Peter's answer about the *non-literal* use of "literally", because I, while being a huge fan of etymology and "what a word really means" have always thought that people who received the intended message with the "incorrectly" used words were being annoying pedants. But him reminding himself that they only care bc they ALSO care deeply about words gave me some important perspective. (I still think I'm correct, though, dang it!) 😂😂
Edit: then of course Peter continues to spit truth after truth, finally arriving at the true key of it all that I mentioned previously-- clarity!! ❤❤❤ What a great interview
And technically, a word doesn't really mean, as to mean is to intend, that's what it means to mean something, it means to intend it, and a word is incapable of having intention... it is the speaker who means something, and uses words to convey the meaning, so the meaning can never be "wrong" or "incorrect" by the choice of word. However, if the goal is to be understood, then you can ask: was the choice of word helpful? People who complain about the rhetorical use of the word "literally" are never confused by it, they're always able to infer the speaker's meaning correctly, so the choice of word did not get in the way of the speaker communicating meaning. By saying "that's not what the word means", the listener is proving that they knew otherwise. So, I just wait for them to use the word "really" during a metaphor or otherwise speaking figuratively to point out the double standard hehe
"I, while being a huge fan of etymology and "what a word really means" have always thought that people who received the intended message with the "incorrectly" used words were being annoying pedants." I utterly disagree. It really does happen that a speaker intends one meaning but conveys another meaning or is unclear. It really does happen that a listener is misled or confused. It is an unfair generalisation to suppose that listeners are "people who received the intended message". If someone raises an issue it doesn't imply that they received the intended message. Perhaps they were unsure which of a couple of possible meanings the speaker intended, and the intended one happened to be one of them. Annoying pedants? The annoying people are those who don't take enough care to convey their meaning. I agree with your last point, though. The importance of clarity.
@@rosiefay7283 I tried to make sure to clarify that the condition must be met that the intended meaning was received and understood first. Second, words are made-up or changed in usage & meaning all the time it's gotta start somewhere. 3rd, with context, I find it hard to believe that someone who isn't profoundly autistic or something similar wouldn't be able to understand what was trying to be said on the fly without having to stop for semantic clarification. Lol but like you said you utterly disagree so I suppose we are at an impasse? Sorry Miss Fay 😭😂
Damn straight! You think i ENJOY getting blasted by salty teenagers calling me cringe and pathetic and sad just cause i try to teach someone the correct spelling of a word THEY CHOSE TO USE? Primarily just so they don't keep repeating it everywhere they go and making themselves look like a moron?
I don't. It sucks. But for reasons i can't explain, it's something I'm extremely passionate about to a point where it always overrides that stuff. People can get as offended by me posting facts as they want - as long as Ive given them that opportunity to learn then that's my job done.
Because i always think maybe no one has before, you know? Everyone deserves to have opportunities to better educate themselves and its up to the individual whether they want to take advantage of that or stay ignorant. 🤷♂️
Fun Fact: words that have contradictory definitions are called contronyms or autoantonyms.
A non-controversial one is “to sanction”.
Rob, Thank you for choosing Peter Sokolowski. Quite the engaging guest! So excited to share his knowledge. The only disappointment I felt was that the conversation was not longer.
Incredibly clear from the very first minute that your guest expert was not a language snob. This was a very insightful and thoroughly enjoyable video to watch.
As a writer, I use the dictionary all the time. And I found it truly fascinating to learn some of the nuances used when defining a word. And how lexicographers keep up with our dynamic language. Thank you!
The Dutch word for fabulous is fabelachtig, which actually means like from a fable.
Thank you for inviting Peter to contribute to your page RobWords. Such an interesting and amiable man.
The bit about looking up a word to find out what preposition usually follows it struck a chord with me, because for the last few years I've really been wondering about the constructions "different from" and "different to." For most of my life I've heard the former, but it seems like for the last few years all I hear is the latter. The shift came so suddenly that it has a Twilight Zone feel for me...like I went to bed one night in a world where everyone said "different from" and woke up the next morning in a parallel world where everyone says "different to." Has anyone else noticed this, or is it just me?
I haven't noticed it per se, but it interests me too. Americans usually say "different than", which is strange, but I think in more formal speech and writing they would mostly say "different from". The British and much of the rest of the English-speaking world seems to have (in my lifetime, anyway) preferred "different to." But I'm not certain of this, and would welcome others' opinions.
I absolutely noticed, and I agree that as you said, it seemed to happen overnight. I even brought it up in conversation with a friend several months after I first noticed it (approx. 3-4 years ago). It was somewhat disorienting to have heard and read "different from" for my whole life up to that point, and then to suddenly see and hear "different to" almost exclusively from a certain mysterious date onward. I'm in California, btw.
Did not know the etymology of very.
¡Peter’s breakdown is not only captivating, but hilarious at points! I love this!!!!
I knew that truth in Latin was veritas but I never made the connection.
🤔The truthfulness (truthy or truthiness) element of the word ‘very’ can be approached and mentally manipulated from the word ‘Veritas’ on a Harvard University T-shirt, or via the verb ‘to verify,’ or the adjective ‘verifiable.’ The modern function of ‘very’ as an intensifier will, of course, be the first stop on the usage trail.
Isn't it like 'verily'?
@@cee8mee You’re right; ‘verily’ is another related specific word-form. According to Google’s N-gram viewer, ‘verily’ was the most used form from the early 1600s until it was overtaken, or at least equaled in popularity in the mid 20th century.
@@jonrolfson1686 Jon, thanks so much for sharing! This thought got me thinking about the ways words sound. English, French, German, and Spanish link up, lots, over and over. It really is fun to get to make these connections, and so I thank you for bringing this thinking to my attention by helping me better learn the word: "very". I *need* to get around to learning French.
I like the words that surround 'serendipity' in the dictionary.
It is refreshing to hear a sensible expert.
I love his enthusiasm. I wonder how often he gets to geek out in an interview like this. I always appreciate people who care about what they do.
One of my favorite statements:
All nouns can be verbed. As an example, "All nouns can be verbed."
I hecking love watching word nerds talking about words
What a DOCUMENT this interview is! Starting with…oh…my German teacher then and moving on to J.R.R. Tolkien, I have become something of a philologist over the decades. You and a few other RUclipsrs have been simply excellent in revealing etymological and philological “secrets” of the English language, and it brings me such satisfaction to my sense of wonder about…words. Thanks to you, I should perhaps refer to only Professor Tolkien’s words as …”fabulous.” 😂😅 All the rest of the philologists are “clear” and “fit to purpose.” LOL! Mahalo for your work from your admirers out here in Hawai’i. Aloha!
The mention of "different Englishes" reminded me of something that I ran into about 20 years ago. The telephone book publisher I worked for farmed some of their simple yellow book ads to a company in India. If anything were wrong, unclear or missing about the info or materials they were given for an ad they would return it to us with a note to "do the needful".
You videos are very entertaining and informative. I especially like that you dive into roots of the english language, germanic and french roots. .
How you just let the guy talk.. nodding, smiling, never interrupting.. awesome. Great job, most interesting video.
FABULOUS video!! 😂😂 Thank you, Rob. This was a fascinating conversation. ❤
That was literally very fabulous!
The "probably incorrect" pronunciation of Copernicus actually has a surprising amount of weight behind it. It's a latinization of his (Polish or Low German) last name "Kopernik/Koppernigk". The latter spelling is what his father used when becoming a resident of Thorn. Copernicus himself often used the latinized version, but usually wrote it as "Coppernicus".
That was wonderful! I could hear you both talking for hours... and I will definitely check out his podcast. And as a translator/editor, I was very glad to hear his comment that language is and will always be a human thing. Bless you for your great videos!
Of course it is. Expression in a living language means change.
Amazing videos! Love the exploration!
I've gotta say, the dictionary on a bench was one of your better intros. Actually made me laugh out loud.
Semantic bleaching. Very interesting.
Didn't know about the word 'very'. And I included 'very' in my commentary without thinking about it.
It's always interesting to hear these kinds of talks from those in the research and study of language. It's that more personal part of anthropology that connects the lives from people in the past and make their experiences valuable to us today.
What a great interview! The questions you asked about AI were interesting and pretty tough to answer. I would have liked to hear more about how words are defined - do the lexicographers figure out the definition themselves by looking at many examples, do they interview experts, laypersons, the coiner of the word, some combination? That's also an area that AI could help with, it can digest a big block of text and answer questions about it.
I love how excited Rob was the whole time; really fun video!
I love the addition of an audible pronunciation guide when you search an online dictionary. Few Americans, it seems, use this facility
Besides the Merriam Webster Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary, there is also the American Heritage Dictionary. In junior high (now called middle school), my parents gifted me a big red desk college-level version of the AHD, which included a long article on the history and origins of English and the Indo-European languages, with a long appendix of "Photo-Indo-European" (PIE) roots used in Modern English, and an endpaper chart of the family tree of Indo-European languages, together with sound correspondences across the languages. This, along with my first foreign language class became a huge interest and key in my love of languages. I wish things like that were readily included in dictionaries and in teaching about languages and usage and grammar. How we went along this several thousand year journey, and the linguistic and cultural cousins we have because of it, are fascinating and important, and for students or amateurs or professionals, something to fire the imagination and eve of language usage and learning.
Wonderful guest! I read a graduate level book on Lexicography. It was hard core, but fascinating!
Excellent and profoundly educative interview, Mr. Sokolowski shows a lovely intricated personality and pristine clarity on concepts uneasily comprensibles to a self-taught English speaker. As always, Rob's shining interventions are beyond Words. Gratitude!
Good job, Rob. This was a fantastic interview from start to finish. Hopefully one day I'll bump into you in the park reading your dictionaries.
I did my MA thesis on Samuel Johnson. I would have loved to be a lexicographer. You were right this is a very special episode. I taught how to use a dictionary when I was a teacher( uni/college).
This was a very interesting conversation. Thanks for sharing it.
A couple of other words like fabulous are “terrific”, originally meaning something that inspires great terror, or “awesome”, meaning something that inspires an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, or fear.
This conversation is so quirt, I love watching you talking about being passionate about words.
Have to pick up on the “very” being etymologically “truly”. You can still say “I had a truly good lunch, the “very” is acting on the next adjective to make you realise that it is not hyperbolic, but actually means what it is supposed to mean, If you get my meaning!
Yeah, replacing "very" with "really" or "truly" doesn't change anything because they really _do_ all mean the same thing.
I've made a joke that awe is something you can have too much of: if you have some you're awesome, but if you're full of it you're awful. Now I realize that I could say I had an awesome lunch or an awfully good lunch and mean the same thing.
@@thomaswilliams2273 Tricky! The awfully good lunch: It's the good that is magnified by the awfull, not the lunch, but in the awesome case, it is the lunch directly that is awesome!
I thought the same thing, especially since in French the adverb "vraiment" ("truly") is also used for emphasis ("c'est vraiment bon" = "it's truly good", literally). So since "very" comes from "vrai", then its current meaning makes sense to me.
This has to be the first time anyone has said the sentence "you just caught me reading a dictionary in my spare time on a bench".
A literally fabulous discussion - lol. Thank you both, I really enjoyed this video.
I've always said my favorite word is sesquipedalian! Glad to know there's a kindred soul out there.
i only knew the sesquipedialiophobia version 😅
@@diegoreckholder945 If there's a phobia is there also a sesquipedalophilia?
@@space.tel-e-grams Sesquipedaliaphilia might be regarded as kinky in a rather big way🙄
Interesting to think of a dictionary more as a "report" (as he says) than a rule book.
I'm both amused and confused about bemused!!😊
I've never thought that Nicolaus Copernicus could have questionable pronunciation till you made me realise how ambitious it is in English. In Poland he's known as Mikołaj Kopernik (Meek•oh•why Kho•per•knee•kh) pretty straight forward.
Fascinating like all of your interesting posts, but as a retired modern language professor, I still flinch when I hear someone using phrases like this one from Mr. Sokolowski: "prevent the user (singular) from embarrassing themselves (plural)". I hear this so much nowadays, and it's usually from younger, highly educated speakers. I don't think professors are teaching prescriptive grammar these days, and it always bothers me after so many years teaching English and other modern languages. Oh, and thank you for your fabulous work.
My favourite word is nomodidaskalos. It is just so pleasant to say. It is the Greek word for a Rabbi. Probably doesn’t count being from another language, but it’s still my favourite word.
I could listen to hours of this conversation!
3 minutes in...Hit pause,open phone, find Word of the Day. Ive never subscribed to a podcast so quickly! Great interview.
So pleased to see that a Merriam-Webster lexicographer, guarding American English, is of Polish persuasion!
What a great interview! I love seeing others that are just as fascinated by linguistics as I am!
The problem with the idea that semantic bleaching isn’t bad is the fact that there is no synonym for literally. You can’t say “he actually followed the rules” and mean the same thing as “he literally followed the rules.” “Very” isn’t a very good comparison since you can say “it was truly good” and mean the same thing.
Peruse - I was amazed when I heard what people thought it meant (they thought it meant 'to skim quickly') and then stunned to find out that there was now two opposing definitions for the word, making it completely redundant, skunked!
Two very likable people talking about something I find fascinating. Lovely.
Biker: “Where’s the bar at?”
Karen: “Never end a sentence with a preposition.”
Biker: “Where’s the bar at, a**hole?”
That's one of those rules that had to be taught to Latin-students because it's _different_ from how it works in English, so it's not necessarily a rule they would get intuitively.
@@ragnkja In the 1950s, I was taught not to end a sentence with a preposition. I learned in recent years that this notion originated with 1600s prolific writer John Dryden. Unfortunately for him, his legacy is this rule rather than his works.
I always thought the dictionary taught us about words…but no, I’m hearing that we are teaching the dictionary about words. So interesting!
I suspect that online dictionaries also make it easier to capture slang. It used to be that dictionaries took time to be updated, so words and meanings that were passing fads had often fallen out of use before the next edition was published. You had to pick words and definitions that stood the test of time. These days an online dictionary entry can be edited in moments, and given how fast language changes, they probably have to be. Modern technology speeds up language change, and vice-versa.
the sort of ppl who use irregardless are not the sort of ppl who use dictionaries.
Thank you for this absolute treat of an interview.
This was GREAT! Many interesting topics covered. I remember when he first started showing up in M-W's videos in the early "Web 2.0" days. I love a professional word nerd who can keep the big picture in mind, and continually adapt with the times. I use my M-W app _literally_ every day. 😊 Thanks so much for sharing this dialogue
This was a very fascinating interview. Sequels & expansions could be nice.
You've interviewed a U.S. Miriam-Webster lexicographer. How about an U.K. Oxford and/or Cambridge counterpart? Perhaps, a debate or an expounding on the different missions (prescriptive vs. descriptive) & approaches (current vs throughout time) with their merits/issues, strengths/limitations, best/worst times to use, etc. would be nice.
This is a great presentation. Dictionaries change. They catalog how words are being used, not how they ought to be. Some are aggressive in accepting new words or definitions & usages. Others are more reluctant. Some are more formal such as a legal dictionary. Others are more casual. English has a number of words that have no known definition but a history of their use. And so it goes. I too find the writings of the founding fathers & similar polymaths interesting, most of whom were self educated. They had a sort of eloquence when writing about critically important subjects that's normally reserved more artful material.
"Text" is now a verb. Consider the common mispronunciation of "nuclear" & "veteran", both in most any dictionary.
I like that this was an interview rather than a conversation.
I am very pleased that this guy has such a more balanced take than so many so-called "descriptivists" that I encounter on the internet, who seem to me more accurately labelled "prescriptive relativists", and attack anyone who calls usages like non-literal "literally" etc incorrect. It is descriptively true that people do in fact use the word in that non-literal way, sure. It is also descriptively true that you're likely to encounter people objecting to such usage, even though they can see what you're trying to say by it. The fact that audiences can figure out your intended meaning doesn't mean that what you said was perfectly correct; as these so-called "descriptivists" love to point out, what is or isn't correct in language is determined by convention, and a contentious usage is one that defies at least some people's understanding of convention. Just because some other people don't understand the convention in that same way doesn't make those who do incorrect, either. A true descriptivist, like Peter here graciously seems to be, would note of such usages not that it does or doesn't correctly mean that, but that *it is disputed* whether it means that, as in, the convention determining the correctness of that usage is presently unsettled; and should note what the most recent settled convention was.
You host a VERY😅 gracious and informative interview, Rob.
Thank you for sharing it with us. ❤
Wow! What a great discussion! But now I have so many more questions!! Hope you do some more videos like this! Loved it!
One of my favorite words is terrific. It means something good, but literally (ha!) means something to fear. Terrific vs terrify vs terrible. For some reason we just like terrific things.
I do find it interesting that the jobs that people think "can only ever be done by humans" always include their own.
Rob, this is a great new direction for Rob Words. Thank you. Please consider more guest interviews. And of course you must be in no doubt how popular your other content is too. 👍
Hi again,
I'm 85 years old and aside from an early gift from my father, Webster's Collegiate is the only dictionary I ever buy. Wit - one exception is a dictionary of eight languages that I bought for 25 cents at a neighborhood yard sale.
What criteria are used to delete an entry?
Here are three words that I created:
1. Elsewhen
2. Thanxalot
3. Monocotyledananjio-
spermatophytes
I'm very tired; I may have misspelled 3.
David Silverman
American in
Antalya, Turkey on the Mediterranean Coast.
Thank you, this was, literally, wonderful to hear. Fabulist, by the by, is also a noun, usually referring to someone who lies, or at least tells tall tales, which are decidedly different from fables.
You should talk to John “Jack” Pitts. He’s the creator of SLicktionary which uses a mix of Web2 and Web3 technology in the blockchain space to incentivize the creation and curation of the English language.
He’s a great speaker too!
The interesting thing to me about COVID 19 is how it’s changed over a short period from entering common usage. It was all capitalized: “COVID 19,” then we started dropping the numerals: “COVID,” and a few months later it was commonly seen with just the first letter capitalized: “Covid” and now it is often seen as just a regular noun: “covid.”
Sounds more like Peter's favourite word is "um."
Lol that’s why he works in writing. It’s easier to articulate your thoughts on paper. (Btw not criticizing, I’m the same way)
Amazing interview AND amazing editing! I can only imagine how much work went into all those explanatory little and big edits, making them so seemless and effortless to take in without pausing the video. Super well done!
The phrase : "To take a census of the language, and report on the usage" ... this means he really is a dictionary compiler ...
Having worked as a newspaper editor in college, and then in geography professionally, I thoroughly enjoyed this video. My favorite word is a place name in Wisconsin: Oconomowoc; five syllables using only five letters! One grammatical trend which really irks my inner editor is the use of Less instead of Fewer, as in 'I saw less people at the conference this year.'