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I realize this title doesn’t make sense, but unlike me, you have not recently watched a TED talk by Erin McKean (you can correct that problem here). Because I like dictionaries, however, I did watch it. And it was cool. Very cool. She suggests the idea that dictionaries are limited by paper and manpower. In other words, there is no way that the people hired to write dictionaries have enough time or paper to realistically write down every new word in the English language, especially given that English is very prone to borrowing and creating new words. So she proposes a solution: the Internet as a dictionary, edited by the masses. I see everyone instantly thinking of urbandictionary.com and the fact that “prostiboots” (boots that are leather, higheeled, and thigh high just like ones found on a prostitute) is probably not a real word. However, McKean argues two excellent points: 1) there is no such thing as a word that is not a real word and 2) in order to create an effective online dictionary, we need to allow all contributions; but they need to be tagged, dated, and accounted for, as in any scientific project. Like any other amateur stumbling on a major discovery, lexicographers, linguists and the like will be there to make sure that everything is going along as planned. As a new word is created, or a word is used in a different form or sense, the beauty of an online dictionary is that whoever was witness to the event is now able to document it.

And, as a sidenote, my link to a classmate’s blog. She’s had some interesting insights into computers and language.