Editors spend an hour each day reading and searching for new words or unusual uses of words, and making notations of where they were seen, how they were used.
"Tattletale gray” is out. “Octaval” hasn’t made the cut. But, “hot key” is in, and so is “F-bomb.”
Visitors to the headquarters of Merriam-Webster on Federal Street here got an inside peek into the world of words and dictionary making as part of a walking tour series, co-sponsored by the Armoury-Quadrangle Civic Association and Springfield Museums.
“I enjoyed finding out about the company. It’s the best kept secret in Springfield,” said participant Linda C. Barnet, of Westfield.
Approximately 70 people heard the history of the venerable company, which settled in its current location in 1940 after having a presence in the city since 1831, and learned just how words get into – and out of – the dictionary.
John M. Morse, today’s president of Merriam-Webster, said he was gratified to see such a large crowd attend the event.
He revealed that “tattletale gray,” a light shade of gray, was featured in the 1963 7th edition of the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, and managed to last through the 8th and 9th editions as well.
But, by the time the 10th edition came out in 1993, the phrase was no longer being used, so it was taken out to make room for new words. “Tattletale gray” had been part of an advertising campaign for a laundry detergent, Morse shared, joking with his visitors that those who knew what the phrase meant were showing their age.
“Octaval,” meanwhile, cited in the now-defunct Gourmet magazine at least twice, in 1966 and 1978, never caught on enough to merit dictionary inclusion, according to Merriam-Webster associate editor Emily A. Brewster. But, it is still being monitored, she revealed.
“It’s not doing well,” Brewster said.
“What does it mean,” inquired one of the visitors.
“You tell me,” said Brewster. “A word needs to have enough evidence in use to determine what it means. It seems to me it means nuanced flavor.”
Editors spend an hour each day reading and searching for new words or unusual uses of words, and making notations of where they were seen, how they were used. Now done electronically, these citations were made on slips of paper before 1980.
Editors scour academic journals, magazines and newspapers; they even draw from conversations overheard and the radio to monitor language.
“Hot key,” a computer term, reflects changing technology. A “hot key” is a key or combination of keys on a computer keyboard programmed to perform a specific function when pressed. That entered the collegiate dictionary relatively recently, into the 11th edition released in 2003.
“Usage we watch develop for years and years and years,” Brewster explained. “We’re looking for anything new, anything unusual, even archaic usage that we are seeing in a modern way.”
Slang terms, she added, “take a long time to be established.”
Brewster said the editors want to ensure the words are “not a flash in the pan” and will still be understood in three years.
For example, the word “jiggy,” popularized by rapper Will Smith in a late 1990s song, means “nice” or “fashionable.” It was on the radar in 2001, but hasn’t been included yet.
“I still think jiggy’s waiting,” Morse said.
F-bomb, “a lighthearted and printable euphemism,” was one of the words recently added to the 2012 update of Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, along with man cave (space used by the man of the house for his hobbies), sexting (sending of sexually explicit messages or images by cell phone), and earworm (a song or melody that keeps repeating in one’s mind). A new sense for included.
Kory Stamper, an associate editor for Merriam-Webster, told the Associated Press that F-bomb was traced back to 1988, in a Newsday story that had the now-dead Mets catcher Gary Carter talking about how he had given them up.
“We saw another huge spike after Dick Cheney dropped an F-bomb in the Senate in 2004, and again in 2010 when Vice President Joe Biden did the same thing in the same place,” Stamper told the Associated Press. “It’s a word that is very visually evocative. It’s not just the F-word. It’s F-bomb. You know that it’s going to cause a lot of consternation and possible damage.”
Words are removed from the dictionary when they represent outdated technologies, or obscure references. “Snollygoster,” a disagreeable person, was taken out in the 2003 collegiate dictionary, Morse said, adding that while he thinks it’s a “delightful word,” it wasn’t used much past the 1960s.
When editors are at work reading and marking, Brewster said the room is quieter than a library. Morse says the study process for his editors is “not unlike the kind of logical analysis when doing SAT tests.”
Each new collegiate edition has about 10,000 new words and definitions, and 100,000 changes. Morse estimated that at least 1 million editorial decisions are handled by 10 editors. The last edition, the 11th, came out in 2003.
While new versions of the collegiate dictionary – the standard college-level desk dictionary – usually come out every 10 years, Morse said he expects the next collegiate edition to take longer, as work is being done on the unabridged version. Still, 100 new words will be added to the collegiate this year.
The collegiate has approximately 160,000 words, while the unabridged dictionary has 460,000. “Tattletale gray” may still be found in the unabridged, as well as “snollygoster,” as there is more room, he said.
Keeping the collegiate to 160,000 words allows it to stay affordable at a retail price of $27.95, he said. Annual sales of the collegiate are proprietary information, but they estimate more than 50 million copies have been sold since its inception. He said it’s difficult to think of any other book besides the Bible selling that many copies.
Merriam-Webster has come a long way since Noah Webster published his first dictionary in 1806, “A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language.” George and Charles Merriam took over the Webster rights after he died.
The company has seized technology, Morse said, adding it embraced the World Wide Web early and it proved to be a wise move.
In 1996, he said Merriam-Webster put the entire contents of the collegiate dictionary on the web at www.m-w.com for free, and he said it was “the best decision ever made.” Now, he said, the dominant source of advertising revenue comes from the web.
Morse said he’s seen two major changes in recent years – the move from print to the web and from the web to mobile devices. The Merriam-Webster iPhone app, which allows users to speak a word, to learn its meaning and spelling, has been popular, Morse said.
“People just love that,” Morse said. “The history of dictionary making has always made use of an emerging technology.”
For example, he noted, in 1947, the company unveiled small format paperback books, a major change for the time.
Today, Merriam-Webster, which is a subsidiary of Encyclopaedia-Britannica, has very little competition – at least in the print world, according to Morse. Online, he said there’s dictionary.com, which licenses an old dictionary from Random-House and there’s also thefreedictionary.com.
While Morse believes Merriam-Webster is “here to stay,” he said the business has been affected by the economy. School sales are down. But, he said he believes the death of the print dictionary will be proclaimed many times before it actually happens. The company employs approximately 70 people.
Morse has been with the company since 1980 and in his current position since 1997. He said he fell in love with Merriam-Webster at first sight. A self-described “lover of language,” Morse said, “To be in the business of providing language is as good as it gets.”
“We know that people really want this information. That’s one thing the web experience has really made clear. When you sell the print book, you never really know if people are using it,” Morse said. “With the web, millions of people a day are coming to the website and looking up words.”
In fact, Morse is convinced that the young Noah Webster would approve of the company’s direction, as he also was interested in creating affordable, innovative products.