The Viola Voice

I’m a big fan of these Ted Talks. This one is Erin McKean, a lexicographer (a person who writes dictionaries; she defines herself as a “dictionary evangelist”). Her speech focuses on the idea that the dictionary, in its current form, is too limiting. We need, she argues, to find a new way of tracking language. I love how excited she is about language; my two favorite new words from the speech are defined below.

go watch the video

 polysemy: n. having multiple meanings; the existence of several meanings for a particular word or phrase.

synecdoche: n. a figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole (as fifty sail for fifty ships), the whole for a part (as society for high society), the species for the genus (as cutthroat for assassin), the genus for the species (as a creature for a man), or the name of the material for the thing made (as boards for stage)

Visit the offical IWD site.