Blog Posts

Collecting Dictionaries Rachel Fletcher Image credits: Rachel Fletcher unless otherwise noted It’s a great honour to be asked by David Vancil to contribute to the newsletter a short piece on my collection of dictionaries. I have never considered myself a serious collector, and it was mostly on a whim that I decided to submit my collection to the University of Glasgow Library’s David Murray Book Collecting Prize at the beginning of 2020. So I was a little startled, as well as excited, to find out that I had been selected as one of two joint winners of the 2020 prize. My BA was at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where I started off in the department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic before moving to linguistics. I found my dictionaries niche as a postgraduate student; I moved to the University of Glasgow to do an MPhil by research on the first published dictionary of Old English (William Somner’s 1659 Dictionarium Saxonico-Latino-Anglicum) and stayed for a PhD on...

A note from the editor of Dictionaries Lynne Murphy In 2021, I mark the 30th anniversary of my first academic publication. It feels slightly unreal that in the same year I take on the editorship of the journal that published it, Dictionaries. 30 years? I guess I'm one of the grown-ups now. I'm honored to have been nominated and chosen to serve the society that has served me so kindly. I'm very lucky to be following Ed Finegan in the position. Ed's hard work and insight brought the journal into a new era of semiannual issues, new features, and electronic access on Project Muse. While Ed has set the bar high for his successor, he's also put a lot of the hard work behind us. I'm grateful for his generous mentorship so far and for his continued advocacy for the journal in his role as DSNA President. It's a real treat to start working with associate editor Sarah Ogilvie and reviews editor Traci...

Membership of the DSNA Publications Committee Wendalyn Nichols The remit of the publications committee of the Dictionary Society of North America is to act collectively as the publisher of the Society’s journal, newsletter, and website. On the content side, this includes supporting the editors in the process of acquisition of articles and reviews for publication – recommending contributors and works for review, facilitating the peer review of submissions, and acting as a sounding board. On the business side, it still includes supporting the journal’s print publication, negotiating with the printer as necessary and overseeing redesigns, but the attention of the members is increasingly on our digital future: of the newsletter on the Society’s website, and of the journal via Project Muse – especially as we strive to meet the requirements for more prestigious indexing and for Open Access. The standing members of the committee are: ChairExecutive Secretary of the SocietyEditor of Dictionaries, the journal of the SocietyReviews editor and any other associate editors of...

About the Conference The Dictionary Society of North America has held biennial meetings since 1977. Bringing together scholars of lexicography and professional lexicographers, the conference is an important event for anyone interested in modern dictionary research and practices. Speakers must be DSNA members; nonmembers should apply for membership when they receive their acceptance to speak. Join here. DSNA 23: Now Online The DSNA is pleased to announce that our 23rd biennial meeting will be virtual to accommodate the travel difficulties the pandemic has wrought. You’ll find the conference announcement below; we will update this page with the links to the call for papers and the registration as the conference committee publishes them. DSNA 23: Fitness of Our Dictionaries and Lexicography to 21st-Century Realities Held virtually on June 4, 202110:00 am – 3:30 pm North American Eastern Time(GMT 15:00 – 20:30) PROGRAM Introduction: Steve Kleinedler (Past President, DSNA) Keynote:  Dictionaries as Authorities: Can They Be and Should They? Kory Stamper and Bryan GarnerModerator: Lane Greene (The Economist) Panels 1. How global and national events affect...

Lynne Murphy has just started work as the editor of Dictionaries. (See her article elsewhere in this issue on what this means to her.) She will welcome any submissions, inquiries, or suggestions regarding the journal; email lynnem@sussex.ac.uk.  Kory Stamper plays a prominent role in Netflix's new series History of Swear Words. Each episode of the series, hosted by Nicholas Cage, features Stamper and other expert guests discussing a given profane or obscene word from linguistic, historic, psychological, and sociological perspectives, interspersed with segments in which well-known comedians riff on the use of those particular words in contemporary culture.  Dictionary Day (October 16–-also Noah Webster’s birthday) was celebrated on our News page by the cover image for a book edited by Sarah Ogilvie. The book is dedicated to Madeline Kripke. The link below will take you to a Word file containing the table of contents: https://dictionarysociety.com/wp-content/uplo https://dictionarysociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/The-Cambridge-Companion-to-English-Dictionaries.docx Vince McCarren on his edition of the Medulla: "Up from the depths with news that I’ve just revised all of P, Q, and R...

Member News about Lynne Murphy. Kory Stamper, Sarah Ogilvie, Vincent McCarren, and job opportunities at Cambridge University Press Conferences: details of our 2021 remote conference and Lise Winer's list of other meetings DSNA: Wendalyn Nichols's Publication Committee report, news about our new forum and payment system, and Sarah Ogilvie's Globalex reports Journal Transition: greetings from Lynne Murphy and appreciation of Edward Finegan Collection of Rachel Fletcher, winner of the David Murray Book Collecting Prize Dictionaries: a new column by Janet DeCesaris Biography of John Morse by Peter Sokolowski Book Preservation by Michael Hancher Education: instruction in dictionaries by Anne Curzan History: a new column by Michael Adams State of Lexicography: Defining Moments by Orin Hargraves Quotations: Ships that Pass in the Night by Elizabeth Knowles Publication Information...