Erin the dictionary evangelist
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: News on 2 Apr 2009.
What a fascinating story! I’ve just come across a writeup about lexicographer Erin Mckean’s brainchild that could effectively change our views about dictionaries. Mckean has embarked on an ambitious project to list every printed word online. She calls it Wordnik and it’s on beta right now. It’s not as pretty as I wish it were (compared to other online dictionaries) but you can sign up now to use it. “Ideally my goal is, before I die, to have some information about every word that’s ever been used in print,” she says. You can read the Christian Science Monitor story here.
As someone who uses online dictionaries a fair bit (yes, the voluminous dead tree editions that were trusty companions in years past are sitting on the shelf), I look forward to see how it’s going to measure up. The ones that I turn to most frequently are freedictionary and merriam-webster. Two features I look for in an online dictionary woud be audio streaming (so I can hear how a word is pronounced) and usage (so I know how a word is used). Freedictionary has a smart looking website that’s enough to keep you coming back if you love words, so I guess Wordnik has got to look better besides laying claim to having the largest number of words in one place (4 billion!).
Merriam-Webster on the other hand has a very practical interface for ordinary visitors. If you want more, youll have to pay a subscription. Now, I can understand why, but it’s a turn-off all the same.
Back to Erin Mckean. If you want to know more about this soft-spoken ‘dictionary evangelist’ as she has been called, check out Wikipedia. You can hear her talk about redefining dictionaries on TED. She’s actually a fun presenter who defies your idea about bookworms, (she actually referred to ‘steampunk’!). But uhm, the dress – she’s got to ditch that. Otherwise, what infectious passion she has!
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