Down-and-dirty at Merriam-Webster

Ever wonder where dictionaries come from? Probably not. Dictionaries are just something we ignore until we need to know how a word is spelled or exactly what it means. And for most people, that isn't often.

It turns out that making a dictionary is a long, intense, complicated process that few people can do. Those who can think it's the best job in the world, however poor the pay and long the hours. So writes Merriam-Webster lexicographer Kory Stamper in her marvelous book Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries.

Stamper calls her book "a nitty-gritty, down-and-dirty, worm's eye's-eve-view of lexicography," and that seems fitting. In her relatively short book, she covers in sparkling prose how they define words, how they decide on pronunciation, how they find examples of usage, how they date words, how they handle offensive and non-standard words and even how they respond to those who question their decisions.

Readers will find many surprises along the way. Here are some things that I found interesting:

* Merriam-Webster makes it a point to respond to every letter or email about its dictionaries.

* The hardest dictionary entries are those hardly anyone ever looks up in a dictionary. These are simple words like a, an, and and the. Stamper says she devoted a month to the word take, while a colleague spent nine months on run.

* Average production is one word per day per staff member, or about 250 words a year. That's why it takes years to produce a new dictionary.

* They never start a new dictionary at the letter A. One reason is that those who review dictionaries, and I have reviewed two or three in my career, usually start at the beginning and rarely read the whole thing. Since lexicographers, like everybody else, get better with practice, they save A for later.

* The lexicographers at Merriam-Webster rarely speak to each other during working hours. They communicate in writing. This informal code of silence helps with concentration. Most of them may be introverts anyway, so it's usually not a problem. One exception is the man responsible for determining how words are pronounced. He may go around the building asking staffers to say certain words.

* Stamper seems partial to words of the four-letter variety. With thousands of words at her command, one might expect more refined choices.