Erin McKean

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Template:Short description Script error: No such module "For". Script error: No such module "Unsubst". Template:Use mdy dates Script error: No such module "infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Script error: No such module "Check for clobbered parameters".Template:Wikidata image

Erin McKean (born 1971) is an American lexicographer.

Early life and education

McKean was born in Charlotte, North Carolina.[1] She graduated from the University of Chicago with a BA/MA in Linguistics. As an undergraduate, she worked in a junior capacity on the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary.[2] She has since served on the Visiting Committee to the University of Chicago's Regenstein Library, and she helped organize a dictionary-themed exhibit, The Meaning of Dictionaries, there in 2007.[3][4]

Career

McKean is a founder of Reverb, which makes the online dictionary Wordnik.[5] She was previously the editor in chief of US Dictionaries for Oxford University Press and Principal Editor of The New Oxford American Dictionary, second edition.[6] [7]

McKean is also the editor of VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly, and edited a collection of work from that publication, Verbatim: From the bawdy to the sublime, the best writing on language for word lovers, grammar mavens, and armchair linguists (Mariner Books, 2001). McKean's novel The Secret Lives of Dresses was a best-seller in Australia, and has been optioned for film.[8][9] She writes about dresses in her blog, A Dress A Day.

She wrote frequently for "The Word" column in The Boston Globe.[10] from 2008 through 2011 and wrote "The Week in Words" for The Wall Street Journal from 2011 through mid-2013.[11] She has also written for The New York Times On Language column.[12]

She was previously a member of the advisory board of the Wikimedia Foundation[13] and is an advisor to Credo Reference.[14]

McKean's 2007 TED talk, "Redefining the Dictionary", was the genesis for the founding of Wordnik.com.[15] She has also spoken at Pop!Tech, Mark Hurst's third annual Gel conference, and Thinking Digital, and gave a Wordnik demo at the All Things Digital D8 conference in 2010.[16][17][18][19] McKean sews her own clothes and often makes "stunt dresses" for speeches, including the Tetris-themed dress she wore to speak at the Web 2.0 Summit in 2009.[20]

In 2010, McKean was named an honorary fellow of the Society for Technical Communication.[21]

McKean has formulated 'McKean's law', also known as Muphry's law: "Any correction of the speech or writing of others will contain at least one grammatical, spelling or typographical error."[22]

"Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked ‘female'.", a quote from McKean's blog, A Dress A Day, has been widely shared on social media.[23] Since the original post features a large picture of Diana Vreeland, the quote has occasionally been misattributed to her.[24]

Books

  • Weird and Wonderful Words (illustrated by Roz Chast, with an introduction by Simon Winchester, Oxford, 2002)[25]
  • More Weird and Wonderful Words (illustrated by Danny Shanahan), Oxford, 2003)
  • Totally Weird and Wonderful Words (Oxford, 2006)
  • That’s Amore (Walker & Company, 2007)
  • The Secret Lives of Dresses (Grand Central, 2011)[26]
  • Aftercrimes, Geoslavery, and Thermogeddon: Plus 157 More Words From a Lexicographer's Notebook (TED Books, 2011)
  • The Hundred Dresses (illustrated by Donna Mehalko, Bloomsbury, 2013)

References

<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

  1. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  2. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  3. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  4. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  5. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  8. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  10. ↑ Chillax – If it works like a word, just use it. Boston Globe August 3, 2008
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  13. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  14. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  15. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  16. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  17. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  18. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  19. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  20. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  21. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  22. ↑ "A word to the wise". (August 12, 2008). The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada), pp. A14.
  23. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  24. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  25. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  26. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".

Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".

External links

Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "http://debianws.lexgopc.com/wiki143/index.php?title=Erin_McKean&oldid=3034361"