title: Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries
author:  Kory Stamper 
description: <strong><a href="//www.amazon.com/b/?node=390919011">An Amazon Best Book of March 2017:</a></strong> We think of English as a fortress to be defended, but a better analogy is to think of English as a child, writes Kory Stamper in her witty and surprising new book, <em>Word by Word</em>. As English grows, it lives its own life, and this is right and healthy. Sometimes English does exactly what we think it should; sometimes it goes places we dont like and thrives there in spite of all our worrying. We can tell it to clean itself up and act more like Latin; we can throw tantrums and start learning French instead. But we will never really be the boss of it. And thats why it flourishes.
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  ![Book cover image](images/Stam_9781101870952_epub3_001_cvi.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Word by Word The Secret Life of Dictionaries Kory Stamper Pantheon Books new
  york](images/Stam_9781101870952_epub3_001_r1.jpg)![Word by Word The Secret
  Life of Dictionaries Kory Stamper Pantheon Books new
  york](images/Stam_9781101870952_epub3_001_r1.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright © 2017 by Kory Stamper
  
  
  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a
  division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and distributed in Canada by
  Random House of Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited,
  Toronto.
  
  
  Pantheon Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House
  LLC.
  
  
  Owing to space limitations, permissions acknowledgments may be found following
  the index.
  
  
  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
  
  
  Name: Stamper, Kory, author.
  
  
  Title: Word by word : the secret life of dictionaries / Kory Stamper.
  
  
  Description: New York : Pantheon Books, [2017]. Includes bibl