Blog Posts

Rod McConchie writes to say that" my piece of news is that my book on the history of English printed medical dictionaries, entitled Discovery in Haste: English Medical Dictionaries and Lexicographers 1547 to 1796, will be published by DeGruyter in the Lexicographica series maior in June this year. I believe that this will be the first-ever monograph on these dictionaries." DSNA Executive Board member Anne Curzan is now a dean at the University of Michigan. Below is an extract from the University press release and at the end appears the URL for the complete press release. ANN ARBOR—Anne Curzan, associate dean for the humanities and a recognized expert in language and linguistics, has been appointed dean of the University of Michigan’s largest academic unit, the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. Her appointment, approved Thursday by the Board of Regents, is effective Sept. 1 and runs through June 30, 2024. Curzan is an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Geneva Smitherman Collegiate Professor of English Language...

Michael Adams had official photographs taken of the DSNA 22 by Bernard Antoine Clark Jr. Photographs were also taken by Luanne von Schneidemesser, David Vancil, and Traci Nagle (of the Cordell visit). The links below take you to these photos. We are grateful to these photographers for giving us a view of DSNA22. Michael Adams's photographs https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1q-w1rF8JPqhgwxD2f1S5mABjwpvLBH1b?usp=sharing Luanne von Scheidemesser's photographs https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1uzCXh1HA9gOmw8ilq2-QQYXPEuMyJf1S?usp=sharing David Vancil's photographs https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_hsMfIztkMXqQuSjoToVUb7-ro3LUBYp?usp=sharing Traci Nagle's photographs https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1pWBSsqatadG4fMZJcqT29zcJgC9mUhoW?usp=sharing...

Cordell Collection Visit On the first day of the 22nd biennial DSNA meeting, a group of attendees took a chartered bus to Terre Haute for a special viewing of dictionaries held by the Cordell Collection of Dictionaries at the Indiana State University Library (https://library.indstate.edu/rbsc/cordell/cordell-idx.html). Displayed across two rooms of the Rare Books and Manuscripts unit for us to examine were items selected from the many gems in this collection by Cinda May, the library’s Chair of Special Collections. In one room was a tableful of  “favorites” including the recently acquired De orthographia dictionum e Graecis tractarum (1471), the oldest item in the Cordell Collection thus far (http://library.indstate.edu/blog/index.php/2018/03/12/cordell-dictionary-collection-acquires-oldest-word-book/); tiny items from the perennially popular miniature dictionary collection; and several unpublished works, including a “Nautical Word List” compiled by Laurence Urdang in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and a manuscript in the form of note cards written by Mitford Mathews which spurred some eager researchers in our party to try to determine...

DSNA22 ENTERTAINMENT Lindsay Rose Russell Upon publication of Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language in September 1961, staff of the G. & C. Merriam Company gathered for a celebration at Editor-in-Chief Philip Babcock Gove’s home. Philip and his wife Grace had cultivated the food for the feast on their very own farm, and Grace provided the evening’s entertainments, a musical puppet show with script, lyrics, and marionettes of her own making; their son Norwood recorded the musical accompaniment. Principal characters of the show were principal staff at Merriam-Webster: Philip, managing editor of Webster’s Third since 1951; Gordon J. Gallan, president and publisher of Merriam-Webster since 1953; Anne M. Driscoll, associate editor since 1953; and H. Bosley Woolf, associate editor since 1955. These four protagonists act out a fanciful history of Webster’s Third, inception to completion: Gove and Woolf convincing Gallan to remain faithful to Webster’s Second by not publishing an update, but Driscoll forcing the revision by defenestrating and burning all surviving editions of the Second. The quartet set...

For Connie Eble, recipient of the 2019 Richard W. Bailey Award for Distinguished Service to Lexicography and Lexicology, presented at the 22nd Biennial Meeting of the Dictionary Society of North America, Indiana University, May 10, 2019 Ben Zimmer The Wall Street Journal Photo: Luanne von Schneidemesser On Dec. 4, 2018, Connie Eble sent out an email to a select group of word-watchers, many of whom are in this room this evening. “Dear Friends,” she wrote. “I have just taught my last class at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to complete fifty years of teaching at the university level. Attached is my final installment of campus slang from my undergraduate students. The 20,000 or so index cards submitted to me over the years will be deposited with University Archives as a permanent record of the slang and campus culture of Tar Heel undergraduates for forty years.” I’m sure there must have been a collective sigh of despair when that email was opened by its recipients. Could this really be...

At the Conference three Society management meetings were held. Kory Stamper has provided reports of these meetings to the Society. DSNA22 Exec Board Meeting: Luanne von Schneidemesser, Lise Winer, Steve Kleinedler, Sarah Ogilvie, Kory Stamper Missing: Elizabeth Knowles, Ed Finegan, Anne Curzan, Stefan Dollinger, Peter Gilliver, David Jost The DSNA Executive Board met at DSNA22 and heard a presentation given by Gilles-Maurice de Schryver, President of EURALEX, on the aims and goals of EURALEX. The Board agreed that, while the models for North American lexicography were certainly different from many models present in Europe, that the goals and vision of EURALEX to forefront lexicography in public discourse and in new commercial enterprises, and to secure funding for lexicographical projects nonetheless resonated with members of the Board. The Board thanks Dr. de Schryver for his presentation. (For more information on EURALEX, visit euralex.org.) The Executive Secretary then gave a Finance and Membership Report to the Board, which was also given at the general business meeting,...

Dictionary Society of North America 22/Studies in the History of the English Language 11 Wednesday, May 8 8:00–3:30        Excursion to the Cordell Collection, Indiana State University 9:00–4:00        Globalex Workshop on Lexicography and Neologism (GWLN 2019), organized and led by Ilan Kernerman (K Dictionaries) and Annette Klosa-Kückelhaus (Leibniz Institute for German Language/University of Mannheim) in the Sassafras Room 9:00–3:30        Seminar on Descriptive and Prescriptive Approaches in Lexicography, organized and led by Edward Finegan (University of Southern California) in the Walnut Room (Participation is by invitation; papers have been pre-circulated) Session 1A: Defining Problems Room:             Walnut            Chair:              David Vancil (Indiana State University) 4:00                 Krista Williams (College of Charleston) and Kory Stamper (Independent lexicographer), “Groups of colors in American and European dictionaries” 4:30                 Paper moved because of cancellation. 5:00                 Orin Hargraves (Independent lexicographer), “Century Dictionary definitions of Charles Sanders Peirce” 5:30                 Robert Krovetz (Lexical Research), “A cross-dictionary comparison of word sense individuation and lexical semantic relationships” Session 1B: The Editor’s Perspective Room:             Persimmon Chair:              Janet DeCesaris (Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona) 4:00                 Brianne Hughes (Bishop Fox), “Self-made lexicographer: How I compiled a cybersecurity style guide” 4:30                 Paul Schaffner (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor), “The ‘new’ Middle...

This issue of the Newsletter is almost completely a compilation of materials coming out of DSNA22—our conference held at the University of Indiana in Bloomington. These materials include a complete program, reports from the various DSNA meetings, award presentations,  information on the Barnhart and Cordell collections, entertainment, Steve Kleinedler’s presidential speech, and many photographs. You will also find some member news as usual and an obituary for Michael Montgomery written by Connie Eble. For those of you who could attend the Conference, this issue will remind you of the event, and for those who could not attend, it will offer a vicarious experience of the Conference. ...