Erin McKean (born 1971) is an American lexicographer.
Erin McKean | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1971 (age 52–53) |
| Education | University of Chicago (BA, MA) |
| Occupation | Lexicographer |
Early life and education
editMcKean 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
editMcKean 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
edit- 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
edit- ^ "Normblog". January 19, 2007.
- ^ "University of Chicago Magazine". October 1, 2006.
- ^ "Libra: Library Reports and Announcements" (PDF). 2006.
- ^ "The Chicago Maroon". June 1, 2007.
- ^ "Xconomy". March 12, 2013.
- ^ "New York Times, "Wordsmiths: They Also Serve Who Only Vote on 'Ain't'"". The New York Times. December 23, 2006.
- ^ Erin McKean, ed. (May 2005). The New Oxford American Dictionary (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 2051. ISBN 0-19-517077-6.
- ^ "If.com.au". May 12, 2011. Archived from the original on April 24, 2014. Retrieved October 12, 2013.
- ^ Caceda, Eden (February 2, 2015). "In Development". Filmink. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved June 26, 2015.
- ^ Chillax – If it works like a word, just use it. Boston Globe August 3, 2008
- ^ "Wall Street Journal". May 24, 2013.
- ^ McKean, Erin (December 17, 2009). "On Language: Redefining Definition". The New York Times.
- ^ Wikimedia Foundation contributors (February 26, 2009). "Advisory Board – Wikimedia Foundation". Wikimedia Foundation. Retrieved March 20, 2009.
{{cite web}}:|author=has generic name (help) - ^ "Credo Reference". Archived from the original on February 14, 2012. Retrieved May 19, 2009.
- ^ "TED blog". June 8, 2009.
- ^ "Pop!Tech". 2006. Archived from the original on June 3, 2016. Retrieved October 12, 2013.
- ^ "Erin McKean at GEL 2006". 2006.
- ^ "Erin McKean at Thinking Digital 2011". 2001.
- ^ "D8 Tech Demo: Wordnik". June 3, 2010.
- ^ "Wardrobe Wrap of the Web 2.0 Summit". October 29, 2009.
- ^ "STC Spotlight: Erin McKean, Honorary Fellow and the Summit's Keynote Speaker". The New York Times. April 9, 2010.
- ^ "A word to the wise". (August 12, 2008). The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada), pp. A14.
- ^ "Erin @ A Dress A Day".
- ^ "You don't owe prettiness to anyone". August 12, 2013.
- ^ "World Wide Words". December 14, 2002.
- ^ "How Erin McKean Sold Her Blog-Based Book". MediaBistro. November 7, 2008. Archived from the original on September 13, 2009. Retrieved May 19, 2009.
External links
edit
Media related to Erin McKean at Wikimedia Commons- McKean biography Archived January 31, 2018, at the Wayback Machine as member of the Wikimedia Advisory Board
- Erin McKean at TED
