Erin McKean
Erin McKean
Erin McKeanis an American lexicographer, based in the San Francisco Bay Area...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEditor
CountryUnited States of America
annoy dictionary guaranteed habit starting
If anything is guaranteed to annoy a lexicographer, it is the journalistic habit of starting a story with a dictionary definition.
ideally information word
Ideally my goal is, before I die, to have some information about every word that's ever been used in print.
love
Words are so lovable. How could you not love words?
amount considered
If you say 'anti-aging,' how anti would it have to be, really? My guess is not much. Any amount of sunscreen could be considered anti-aging.
consumers deciding dictionary flip good great metric whether
Most consumers don't have a good metric for deciding on whether the dictionary they want to use is a good one... so they flip the book over, then go to the back, and it says, 'Over 250,000 entries.' And they go, 'Great, this dictionary must be awesome!'
limit number
You can limit the number of invitations to an in-person fashion show, but you can't police the Internet.
almost drafted eternal serve
Almost any word can be drafted to serve as a verb, even words we think of as eternal and unchanging, stuck in their more traditional roles.
chance couple mental refreshed rested visit
For me, conferences are like little mental vacations: a chance to go visit an interesting place for a couple of days, and come back rested and refreshed with new ideas and perspectives.
deeply easily english finds motivated personal tend
Objections to verbification in English tend to be motivated by personal taste, not clarity. Verbed words are usually easily understood. When a word like 'friend' is declared not a verb, the problem isn't that it's confusing; it's that the protester finds it deeply annoying.
happen intended uniforms
Uniforms are intended to make the wearer look as strong as possible. Soldiers could fight in leotards, but that's never going to happen because leotards aren't intimidating.
donuts everybody mean promoted synergy twice
If you're talking about how you promoted synergy in an organization, that could mean you just got everybody together for donuts twice a week.
bad jargon people shortcut
People say jargon is a bad thing, but it's really a shortcut vocabulary professionals use to understand one another.
few good publicity ways
There are very few good ways to get publicity for a dictionary.
listening mimi want
if you want someone to stop listening to you go ahead and yell. If you want them to listen to every word, whisper. -Mimi