7/25/2023 0 Comments Dictionaries websters![]() ![]() It all depended on how Aunt Sophie wanted to be seen by the rest of her family, how much she wanted to spend, and how much she liked her young relative. It might be linen-covered it might be printed on India paper it might have speckled edges it might be thumb-indexed it might be all four. When Aunt Sophie wanted to reward a niece or nephew for graduating from high school with college in view, she would present the up-and-coming student with a dictionary, but not just any dictionary. ![]() When you walked into a room and saw a dictionary, you saw it as proof that the owner belonged to your tribe, though, to be sure, you also had to find certain novels, poems, or political manifestos on shelves nearby.Īs objects, dictionaries were sometimes attractive books, and when they served as gifts on special occasions, they conveyed something of the giver’s status. Dictionaries became an icon of the college experience, certified the intellectual status of their owners, and marked the rising social tide of higher education. Like grammar handbooks, dictionaries supported learning in introductory writing courses, and, for consistency, students and faculty, it was thought, should all refer to the same one. A big dictionary on the shelf implied that you read books with words so hard you might need to look them up or that you were a reader in search of nuance that only a big dictionary could supply.Īfter World War II, colleges and universities nationwide required that new students buy the American College Dictionary or the Merriam-Webster Collegiate. Other people played Yahtzee-not that there’s anything wrong with that-but Dictionary players were a breed apart. Points to the writer of a fake definition, if selected points to the one who selected the word, if the correct definition is overlooked. And you may have played the game Dictionary-someone selected a word from the dictionary and supplied the right definition while everyone else made up definitions, and then the person whose turn it was had to figure out which definition was correct. Maybe you suspected your neighbors mispronounced certain words or used them incorrectly. Owning a dictionary implied some things: an ambition to speak and write correctly that you thought about language. Dictionaries were useful objects, but when people weren’t sitting on them or looking things up in them, they were also household ornaments that signified eloquently the social status of their owners. Heaven help the family with too many children and too few dictionaries. At Thanksgiving, children unable to reach their turkey sat atop the big Webster’s or Random House. Earlier in the year, flowers had dried within their pages. 11, 2022 in Cardiff, Wales.But, as anyone who grew up in twentieth-century America knows, many a dictionary stopped a door or flattened autumn leaves between waxed paper. In 2021 the Oxford word of the year was “vax” and Merriam-Webster’s was “vaccine.”Ī row of Oxford English dictionaries in a school classroom on Feb. Last week Merriam-Webster announced that its word of the year is “gaslighting” - psychological manipulation intended to make a person question the validity of their own thoughts. The choice is more evidence of a world unsettled after years of pandemic turmoil, and by the huge changes in behavior and politics brought by social media. ![]() The word of the year is intended to reflect “the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the past twelve months.” For the first time this year’s winning phrase was chosen by public vote, from among three finalists selected by Oxford Languages lexicographers: goblin mode, metaverse and the hashtag IStandWith.ĭespite being relatively unknown offline, goblin mode was the overwhelming favorite, winning 93% of the more than 340,000 votes cast. “Given the year we’ve just experienced, ‘goblin mode’ resonates with all of us who are feeling a little overwhelmed at this point,” said Oxford Languages President Casper Grathwohl. READ MORE: ‘Gaslighting’ is Merriam-Webster’s 2022 word of the yearįirst seen on Twitter in 2009, “goblin mode” gained popularity in 2022 as people around the world emerged uncertainly from pandemic lockdowns. It defines the term as “a type of behavior which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations.” Oxford Dictionaries said Monday that “goblin mode” has been selected by online vote as its word of the year. LONDON (AP) - Asked to sum up 2022 in a word, the public has chosen a phrase. ![]()
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