Grammar Girl here. I'm Inyon Fogarty, and today I'm talking with Stefan Fatsis, journalist and author about his new book, Unabridged, The Thrill and Threat, to the Modern Dictionary.

Stefan takes us inside Merriam Webster, how words get chosen, defined, debated, and even

retired. He embedded with lexicographers, sifted through archival citation slips, and voted on

Word of the Year. It's a behind-the-scenes trip. We're going to talk about precision,

language change, and how the digital world is changing

everything.

If getting a peek inside a dictionary office sounds like a thrill or if you've dreamed of

getting a job with words, I think you'll find our talk really interesting, but also

maybe a little bit unsettling.

Stefan Fatsis, welcome to the Grammar Girl podcast.

Oh my God, so great to be here, Mignon.

Thank you so much.

I know.

It's great to see you.

I think the last time I saw you was at the Reno Scrabble competition.

It was.

It was a national championship in Reno, and we had a great chat. I can't remember

how I did at that tournament, probably not that well, given my track record at national championships,

but it is always fun to compete, and I still compete. So I just got back from this year's nationals,

which were outside of Baltimore. That's great. And I loved your book, Word freak, all about

Scrabble. But today, we're going to talk about your new book, all about dictionaries, unabridged, and you embedded at Merriam Webster, which just sounds like a dream to me. Tell me how that came about.

Well, this is like more than a decade ago now this project started. Merriam had just begun

...