Lexicographers are language reporters. Erin McKean languagelexicographerreporter Change image and share on social
People say jargon is a bad thing, but it's really a shortcut vocabulary professionals use to understand one another. Erin McKean badjargonpeople Change image and share on social
A love letter is to be savored; a love email... is to be forwarded to all your friends, and probably laughed at. Erin McKean emailforwardfriend Change image and share on social
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!' Erin McKean 000awesomeback share on social
It's difficult to choose a Word of the Year in the year that you're in. It's one of those things that hindsight makes more apparent. It's like looking at pictures from 10 years ago, and you notice the flannel and the ripped jeans. At the time, it didn't look to you like a real fashion trend. Erin McKean agoapparentchoose share on social
Language is a nice way to remember things. Erin McKean languageniceremember Change image and share on social
You can limit the number of invitations to an in-person fashion show, but you can't police the Internet. Erin McKean fashioninternetinvitation Change image and share on social
There are hundreds of thousands of words that aren't in any print dictionary today... because there's no space for all of them. Erin McKean dictionaryhundredprint Change image and share on social
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. Erin McKean fighthappenintend Change image and share on social