Dictionary Quotes - Page 12

• Language is a signifier - it points to something. But those somethings change sometimes. Where the line comes down is that change is not in the dictionary first, it's not: change the signifier and the signified will go away.

  Kory Stamper

  Going Away, Things Change, Language

  Source: www.macleans.ca

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• It's difficult to sit down and write a letter back saying, "you know what, even if we remove the word from the dictionary, people will still continue to use it." That's the tightrope that we walk - "gay marriage" is another example, or the word "nude."

  Kory Stamper

  Writing, Gay, People

  Source: www.macleans.ca

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• I think when dictionaries define words, there's a sort of hair-splitting that to most people doesn't make any sense, which is we're not describing what a thing is.

  Kory Stamper

  Thinking, People

  Source: www.macleans.ca

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• Words have always been political, and that means that, in many people's minds, dictionaries are political. Because that's what dictionaries do: they do words.

  Kory Stamper

  Mean, Political, Mind

  Source: www.macleans.ca

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• The word 'defeat' is not to be found in my dictionary, and everyone who is selected as a recruit in my army may be certain that there is no defeat for a satyagrahi.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Army, May, Defeat

  Mahatma Gandhi (1993). “Gandhi on Nehru”

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• There's a measure of prescriptivism and descriptivism in every dictionary. Prescriptivism believes that the language should mirror the best practices of English, and editors are prescriptivist in so far as they don't want to let things they consider to be inelegant or ungrammatical into print.

  Kory Stamper

  Believe, Language, Print

  Source: www.macleans.ca

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• When I need to know the meaning of a word, I look it up in a dictionary.

  William Safire

  Needs, Looks, Knows

  "Dictionaurus" by William Safire, www.nytimes.com. June 10, 2009.

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• Most of my library consists of books on the Catholic faith: conversion stories, books on saints and Early Church Fathers, Apparitions of Mary, prayer books, Scriptural resource books on Apologetics, Typology, concordances, bible dictionaries, bible encyclopedias and at least 40 bibles - both Catholic and Protestant editions in several different translations.

  Gail Buckley

  Prayer, Father, Book

  Source: www.patheos.com

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• And no, I'm not a walking C++ dictionary. I do not keep every technical detail in my head at all times. If I did that, I would be a much poorer programmer. I do keep the main points straight in my head most of the time, and I do know where to find the details when I need them.

  Bjarne Stroustrup

  Details, Would Be, Needs

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• Every time I have to look up a word in the dictionary, I'm delighted.

  Vivienne Westwood

  Looks, Look Up, Delighted

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• The Devil will use our words and his dictionary.

  Adrian Rogers

  Devil, Our Words, Use

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• Fandango was around before the Internet. Fandango is a Spanish-American dance. It's a lively tempo dance. It's almost like the tango. That's what it says in the Merriam-Webster [dictionary]. The second entry is [defined as] 'tomfoolery.' That's what it says in the dictionary, that's what I go by. I remember Queen saying it too on 'Bohemian Rhapsody.' When I was little I never understood what they meant by 'do the fandango.

  DJ Quik

  Queens, Bohemian Rhapsody, Littles

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• Who is to say who is the villain and who is the hero? Probably the dictionary.

  Joss Whedon

  Hero, Villain

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• Everything starts somewhere, though many physicists disagree. But people have always been dimly aware of the problem with the start of things. They wonder how the snowplough driver gets to work, or how the makers of dictionaries look up the spelling of words.

  Terry Pratchett

  People, Looks, Problem

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• Hash, x. There is no definition for this word - nobody knows what hash is. Famous, adj. Conspicuously miserable. Dictionary, n. A malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic. This dictionary, however, is a most useful work.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Growth, Definitions, Language

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• At least Lester had the decency to weep at his act of perfidy. Reader, do you know what 'perfidy' means? I have a feeling you do, based on the scene that unfolded here. But you should look up the word in your dictionary, just to be sure.

  Kate DiCamillo

  Mean, Feelings, Looks

  Kate DiCamillo (2013). “The Essential Kate DiCamillo Collection”, Candlewick Press

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• Words fail me sometimes. I have read most every word in the Webster’s International Dictionary of the English Language, but I still have trouble making them come when I want them to. Right now I want a word that describes the feeling you get – a cold sick feeling deep down inside – when you know something is happening that will change you, and you don’t want it to, but you can’t stop it. And you know you will never be the same again.

  Jennifer Donnelly

  Sick, Feelings, Want

  Jennifer Donnelly (2015). “A Gathering Light”, p.5, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• Poetry consists in a rhyming dictionary and things seen.

  Gertrude Stein

  Literature, Rhyming

  Gertrude Stein (1955). “Painted lace: and other pieces, 1914-1937”

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• The dictionary has been in the making for several decades, and the result is well worth the wait. MacLean and those who worked with her have consulted with Iñupiaq speakers from across Alaska's North Slope to compile a comprehensive collection of word stems, along with postbases, grammatical endings, and an array of other valuable material. . . . This dictionary will prove fascinating for anyone interested in the Iñupiat and their language.

  Lawrence Kaplan

  Alaska, Waiting, Language

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• I've been accused of being pretentious and insufferable, and I don't really know what I can say about that. I never got good grades in school, but I did read the dictionary for fun. That was just the kind of stuff that I liked to do. I can't apologize for that.

  Mara Wilson

  Fun, School, Stuff

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• There is many a thing which the world calls disappointment; but there is no such thing in the dictionary of faith. What to others are disappointments are to believers intimations of the will of God.

  John Newton

  Disappointment, World, Gods Will

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, (p. 281), 1895.

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• When I start asking my friends, "What do you think this means?" And it leads to way more interesting conversations than what it actually ends up meaning in the dictionary. Like "apocryphal," for instance.

  Andrew Bird

  Mean, Thinking, Interesting Conversation

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• I used to keep a dictionary and work with it and then I realized there are more words that exist in the English language than there are in this dictionary.

  Nas

  Language, Used, I Realized

  Source: www.wbur.org

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• I always go with the dictionary definition of feminism, which is just social, political and economic equality for women.

  Jessica Valenti

  Political, Feminism, Definitions

  Source: bigthink.com

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• If you look up the word "gab" in the dictionary, it's insignificant of importance, of no substance. That's what gab is.

  Malachy McCourt

  Looks, Substance, Look Up

  Source: bigthink.com

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