How to get a word added to the dictionary Ilan Stavans
“Dictionary:” noun,
“a malevolent literary device
for cramping the growth of a language
and making it hard and inelastic.”
“Lexicographer:” noun, “a writer
of dictionaries; a harmless drudge.”
While the concept of a dictionary
dates back to ancient civilizations,
the first English dictionary was published
by Robert Cawdrey in 1604.
In the centuries that followed,
many more dictionaries were written
by individual authors
who chose what to include or exclude.
They not only defined words, they openly
showcased their creators’ opinions—
like Ambrose Bierce’s definition
of “dictionary”
and Samuel Johnson’s definition
of “lexicographer.”
After their authors deaths, many of these
dictionaries quickly became outdated.
But one 19th century dictionary
had a different fate.
In 1828, American lawyer and author
Noah Webster published
“An American Dictionary of the
English Language” with a lofty goal:
to give the United States its own version
of the English language.
He believed that as a new nation,
the United States needed its own distinct
version of English
to assert its independence from Britain.
In his dictionary, Webster sought
to describe and officialize
the way Americans spoke.
Most dictionaries in Webster’s time
were prescriptive:
they dictated how words should be used,
rather than documenting the way people
actually used language in daily life.
When Webster broke this convention and
included slang words in his dictionary,
critics accused him of polluting
the English language.
But he argued that these words captured
local variations of language—
a vital part of what made
American English unique.
He also believed spelling rules
were unnecessarily complex,
and that we should write the way
we speak as much as possible.
Still, Webster’s own opinions influenced
the words he included
and the way he defined them.
He excluded slang words
from Black communities
because he didn’t consider them proper.
And when he defined “woman,”
he added that “women are soft,
mild, pitiful, and flexible.”
By the time of his death,
Noah Webster was a household name.
Seeing a lucrative business opportunity,
brothers George and Charles Merriam bought
the rights to Webster’s Dictionary.
Together with Webster’s son-in-law,
the Merriams made a new, revised edition.
It was the beginning
of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
Today, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary
begins to address
a contradiction in Webster’s goal:
he wanted to represent an entire nation,
but he based his work on just one person’s
opinion: his own.
Since Webster’s death, each new edition
of the dictionary has been curated
by a group of language experts rather
than by a single authority.
The current criteria for
including a word in the dictionary
are that it has “widespread,
sustained, and meaningful use.”
This clearly includes profanities,
which were sometimes excluded
from dictionaries in the past.
Racial slurs also meet
the criteria for inclusion,
but some argue that including
them might legitimize them.
Dictionaries don’t just add new words—
they also redefine old words to reflect
changing attitudes and usage.
One 1736 dictionary defined “wife”
as “a married woman whose will,
in the judgment of the law, is subject
to the will of her husband:
for which reason a wife is
said to have no will.”
Today, “wife” is defined simply as
“a female partner in a marriage.”
In 2019, Merriam-Webster’s word
of the year was “they.”
The word has been in regular
use for centuries,
but has only recently gained a new
recognized meaning,
as a pronoun for one person whose
gender identity is nonbinary.
The question of which words belong
in the dictionary impacts all of us—
when our words and definitions
are represented, they’re affirmed;
if not, they— and we— are minimized.
Today, lexicographers have expanded
word sourcing
to include the dictionary’s users:
tracking which words are most searched,
and adding them to the dictionary.
So, who decides what’s in the dictionary?
More than ever before the answer is:
we do.
All of us shape language every day.
When we collectively embrace one word
or redefine another,
eventually, those words and meanings
are reflected in our dictionaries.