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The word detective : searching for the…
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The word detective : searching for the meaning of it all at the Oxford English Dictionary, a memoir (original 2016; udgave 2016)

af J. A. Simpson

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2419110,480 (3.61)3
"What do you call the part of a dog's back it can't scratch? Can you drink a glass of balderdash? And if, serendipitously, you find yourself in Serendip, then where exactly are you? The answers to all of these questions can be found in the Oxford English Dictionary, the definitive record of the English language. And there is no better guide to the dictionary's many wonderments, its quirks, and its quiddities than the former chief editor of the OED, John Simpson. John spent almost four decades of his life immersed in the intricacies of our language, and guides us through its history with charmingly laconic wit. In The Word Detective, an intensely personal memoir and a joyful celebration of English, he weaves a story of how words come into being (and sometimes disappear), how cultures shape the language we use, and how we cope when words fail us. Throughout, he enlivens his narrative with lively excavations and investigations of individual words-from deadline to online and back to 101 (yes, it's a word)-all the while reminding us that the seemingly mundane words (can you name the four different meanings of ma?) are often the most interesting ones. A brilliant expedition through the world of words, The Word Detective will delight, inspire, and educate any lover of language"--… (mere)
Medlem:clearchart
Titel:The word detective : searching for the meaning of it all at the Oxford English Dictionary, a memoir
Forfattere:J. A. Simpson
Info:New York, NY : Basic Books, [2016]
Samlinger:clearchart
Vurdering:
Nøgleord:Ingen

Work Information

The Word Detective: Searching for the Meaning of It All at the Oxford English Dictionary af John Simpson (2016)

  1. 00
    Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries af Kory Stamper (nessreader)
    nessreader: Both biographies of dictionary-makers, with lots of word nerdery as well. Kory is a blog turned book, so a bit funnier, a bit more informal and a bit more series of essays as distinct from a long sequential read.
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Viser 1-5 af 9 (næste | vis alle)
This took me nearly two months to read, which is unheard of for me. It is so much more dense than I anticipated, and lacked a firm narrative pull in the first half to keep me moving. But still, this is so fascinating to watch the OED move online and understand the process of updating the dictionary. I read a similar book about the Merriam-Webster dictionary right before this, and the different approaches to language and record they take are notable. I enjoyed the thread here about his non-verbal daughter as well, an irony in his life he grappled with for a long time. ( )
  KallieGrace | Jan 3, 2024 |
Interesting and fun! Basically a history of the OED from when it was still filing cabinets full of citation cards up to the dictionary moving fully into the digital age. The occasional brief dips into the histories and etymologies of particularly interesting individual words also give a good sense of the development of the English language.

In general, Simpson's enthusiasm about lexicography makes the whole things a delight to read. I also have a fondness for his writing style-- his many dashes and parentheses and other diversions seem well-suited to the dictionary-making mentality. ( )
  misslevel | Sep 22, 2021 |
There are a few of us for whom a memoir by a lexicographer sounds like fascinating stuff, and for us few John Simpson's “The Word Detective” (2016) is a winner.

Hired in the 1970s by the Oxford English Dictionary, after first being turned away, Simpson found a career as a "word detective" a perfect fit for him. He gradually rose through the ranks until he became its chief editor, overseeing the transformation of the OED from a giant, multi-volume reference found mostly in libraries to a valuable online resource available on anyone's phone or computer.

The phrase "word detective" seems apt, for the work of a lexicographer involves such tasks as discovering the many meanings of a particular word at various points in the expanding English-speaking world, accounting for different spellings and pronunciations and, perhaps most difficult of all, determining the earliest use of this word. "At the time," Simpson writes, "I couldn't imagine anything that was as much fun as doing this: working fast, assimilating insightful but sometimes mistimed comments, taking a good entry and making it as perfect as possible."

Throughout his book Simpson uses such words as crowdsourcing and transpired, then in an aside explains something about that particular word's history and meaning, thus not just telling us how he worked but showing us the actual results of word detecting.

Sometimes Simpson gets personal, never more so than when he writes about Ellie, his now adult daughter who can neither speak nor understand language. It's a tragic irony — the man in charge of the world's greatest English dictionary having a wordless daughter with whom he cannot communicate.

More than a memoir, “The Word Detective” is also a modern history of the OED, with a lot of its early history thrown in. Simpson is now retired yet, through his memoir, is still serving the old firm well. ( )
  hardlyhardy | Nov 22, 2020 |
A very interesting read. It outlines John's life as he took on the challenge to become a lexicographer and bring the OED into the 21st Century. It is a dictionary story, some word history and his personal struggles. Well written and easy to read. It is sprinkled throughout with investigations of individual words and where they came from. ( )
  GeoffSC | Jul 25, 2020 |
I realised after finishing this book that it's third or fourth thing I've consumed on lexicography, previous things being [b:The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary|155396|The Meaning of Everything The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary|Simon Winchester|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442244303l/155396._SY75_.jpg|23982354] and the film version of [b:The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary|25019|The Professor and the Madman A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary|Simon Winchester|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1407110918l/25019._SY75_.jpg|1628566] (plus, since modern lexicography looks kindly upon referencing non-traditional sources, a podcast interview with Jane Solomon of Dictionary.com on Talk the Talk). An endlessly fascinating subject!

I was engrossed in this book, which was written by the former chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary about his career at the OED, interspersed with insights into selected word histories and vignettes of his personal and family happenings. His descriptions about the thorough research and analysis process of pinning down definitions, etymologies, bibliographies, quotations, and so on just to get one word into the dictionary—so illuminating and really makes you appreciate the final product! As a technology enthusiast, I was especially hooked in the later chapters, in which he takes the reader through the OED's transition from a collection of antiquated Victorian tomes into an unbelievable networked digital mine for knowledge and exploration. (So many questions and curiosities to explore!)

Despite the joy that the book's contents offered me, I'm glad to see that other reviewers have noted the somewhat disagreeable voice of the author. Many a time, while reading the book, I made a face upon encountering a thing that felt unnecessarily resentful or holier-than-thou (never mind that the beginning chapters give a relatable account of his own humble and inexperienced start at Oxford's hallowed halls).

On "loving words", here are some of the author's thoughts on that distasteful idea: 'One of my ongoing issues is with people who "love words."' and 'I should state it outright: lexicographers are not people who "love words"—at least, not in a schmaltzy, sentimental way.' and 'So how do we weed out those word-lovers?' Okay, so, we get it, Mr. Oxford English Dictionary and (in one international sense) literally the face of the British language, you don't love words… or whatever. Not to harp on about this, but this sentiment and its repetition is so bizarre to me—for one, because this book by him could be considered a "pop" language book: it's not written in an academic style, neither is it published by an academic institution, and from all perspectives is packaged from cover to subtitle to structure as a book for the so-called "word lovers" that the author likes so much to ridicule. I suppose I can maybe see his point about glitzy, exceptional words that overshadow the foundational words—for which the research work is indeed elaborate, and he shows us that diligently—but sir I'd argue that a love and enthusiasm (did you see me use enthusiast up there?? even though the author deems it, and apparently all other even slightly non-neutral feelings, barbaric??) for words is a trait shared by many lexicographers and non-academic contributors—I'd venture to say even by those you respect.

Another prickly aspect of the book for me was the elitism and exclusivity that I felt still perpetuated, despite the author's sustained interest, throughout working on the Supplement and on New Words, in tugging the dictionary into more modern and democratic stances. Granted, he acknowledges, "I come from a generation and a society where over-enthusiasm was deplored, and keenness was deprecated." Not to mention the ancient grand elephant of working at Oxford for thirty-five years. So, maybe, analogous to the old age of OED1 and to the final chapter title, "Becoming the Past", the author's attitude is a product of his time, as in sentiments such as, "[…] it told us something about the sort of people and society we had become. Not thoughtful and reflective, but self-obsessed, capturing images of ourselves in rear-view mirrors, like selfies on sticks."

Unfortunately I can't quite account for whatever attitude is displayed in the author giving himself nines and eights out of ten compared to new lexicographer candidates, or emphasising repeatedly how difficult lexicography is, or the left-handedness Plan B test ('Instead of marking scripts at the end of an assessment session, you just look around the room and see who is left-handed, and then appoint them'), or, 'But as with any simple but crucial development (I'm giving this one more credit than it's due as I devised it), it's not the program that is important, but the very first spark of the idea' (not the same, but…), or, 'If you don't see a difference, that's one of the reasons you're not working on the OED.' (What, what is that?? Reader, are you exasperated yet??)

The rant portion of this review carried on for much longer than first anticipated—always easier to talk about things you don't like, I guess. Having said all that! I did enjoy the book as a whole and I've been exploring the online OED in great delight, truly astounded by both the palpable amount of research work that has gone into it over the years and the thrilling new capabilities afforded by digitality. (After all the fuss about accessibility, it's still a subscriber-only resource, which I'm fortunate to be able to access it through my university—hoping that you might have something similar at your disposal?)

TLDR: good read, but TFG. ( )
  piquareste | Jun 3, 2020 |
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"What do you call the part of a dog's back it can't scratch? Can you drink a glass of balderdash? And if, serendipitously, you find yourself in Serendip, then where exactly are you? The answers to all of these questions can be found in the Oxford English Dictionary, the definitive record of the English language. And there is no better guide to the dictionary's many wonderments, its quirks, and its quiddities than the former chief editor of the OED, John Simpson. John spent almost four decades of his life immersed in the intricacies of our language, and guides us through its history with charmingly laconic wit. In The Word Detective, an intensely personal memoir and a joyful celebration of English, he weaves a story of how words come into being (and sometimes disappear), how cultures shape the language we use, and how we cope when words fail us. Throughout, he enlivens his narrative with lively excavations and investigations of individual words-from deadline to online and back to 101 (yes, it's a word)-all the while reminding us that the seemingly mundane words (can you name the four different meanings of ma?) are often the most interesting ones. A brilliant expedition through the world of words, The Word Detective will delight, inspire, and educate any lover of language"--

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