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A tremor of excitement among the drudges

Those of you who are civilians likely imagine that lexicographers are drab, colorless figures chained to their desks, their lips moving silently as they make their minute distinctions of etymology, syllabification, and the hundreds of thousands of senses of set.

You have plainly not seen the sublime Kory Stamper of Merriam-Webster wow the audience at the American Copy Editors Society's conferences with the oomph and sass she brings to the exploration of the labyrinth of words. (Yes, you have a similar stereotype about copy editors. Let's move on.)

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Now you see what you've missed. She has written a book, using material from her blog on lexicography, harmless drudgery.* Penguin Random House is publishing Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries.

You can order it directly from the publisher or from Amazon, and then you will have eight months of anticipation until the publisher finally brings it out in March.

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Let me be clear: Whether you are aware or not, you crave this book.

*Samuel Johnson defined lexicographer as "a writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge." Drudge has since been a badge of pride.

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