Grammar Punk Blog

 I’ve talked about utilizing the dictionary, which I do. A lot. I love the dictionary, it is, in fact, my favorite book of all time. I always felt that way, even as a kid. I read through the dictionary for the first time in the seventh grade, then again as an adult. I know what you’re thinking—you actually read the dictionary? The entire dictionary? Yes. I did. Twice. And I’m prepared to do it again. Okay, it’s a little thin on plot and a tad wordy, but… Seriously, it’s a great book.

I’ve always had a thing for the dictionary, then I read a perfectly marvelous book: The Professor And The Madman. Title notwithstanding, the book is about the amazing and monumental task of compiling the dictionary.

I suppose I’d given some thought as I was wading through A to Z what prodigious amount work must have gone into its creation—then again, maybe I didn’t. The dictionary has always just…been there. Need to know how to spell a word? Look it up? What does that word mean? Look it up. There it was, once upon a huge tome sitting on a shelf in your bedroom, nestled between Nancy Drew and that copy of Wuthering Heights you forgot to return to the library. Just there.

Well guess what, it was compiled one word at a time, one definition at a time, one language ideation at a time. I’ll talk more about this remarkable book and the remarkable men who undertook this mammoth task, and yes, you’ll find it interesting. Maybe even interesting enough to pick up that big old dictionary from your own shelf and begin with the letter A…