{"product_id":"book-mk2t","title":"Unabridged","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the author of the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e bestseller \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWord Freak\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e, a vibrant, illuminating journey through the exotic world of Merriam-Webster, dictionaries, and language, at a time of rapid-fire change in the way we create, consume, define, and use words\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWords are the currency of culture—and never more than today. From \u003ci\u003eselfie\u003c\/i\u003e to \u003ci\u003edoomscrolling\u003c\/i\u003e to \u003ci\u003erizz\u003c\/i\u003e, our hyper-connected digital world coins and spreads new words with lightning speed and locks them into mainstream consciousness with unprecedented influence. Journalist and bestselling author Stefan Fatsis embedded as a lexicographer-in-training at America’s most famous dictionary publisher, Merriam-Webster, to learn where new words come from, who decides what they mean, how they get into the dictionary, and how we use and think about them. As he recounts in \u003ci\u003eUnabridged\u003c\/i\u003e, he discovered the history and fascinating subculture of the dictionary and of those who curate and revere “one of the most basic features of our collective humanity.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eFatsis reveals the little-known story of how the brothers George and Charles Merriam acquired Noah Webster’s original American dictionary and reshaped the business of language forever. Merriam-Webster became America’s most successful and enduring compendium of words, withstanding intense competition and cultural controversies—only to be threatened by the power of Google and artificial intelligence today.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eDelving into Merriam’s legendary archives and parsing its arcane rules, Fatsis learns the painstaking precision required for writing good definitions. He examines how the dictionary has handled the most explosive slurs and the revolutionary change in pronouns. He votes on the annual Word of the Year, travels to the legendary \u003ci\u003eOxford English Dictionary\u003c\/i\u003e, and visits the world’s greatest private dictionary collection in a Greenwich Village apartment stuffed with more than 20,000 books. Fatsis demonstrates how words are weaponized in our polarized political culture—from \u003ci\u003eliberal\u003c\/i\u003e to \u003ci\u003ewoke\u003c\/i\u003e to \u003ci\u003eDEI\u003c\/i\u003e—and, in a time of insurrections and pandemics, how they can be a literal matter of life and death. Along the way, he manages to write a few definitions that crack the code and are enshrined in the pixelated dictionary.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“I fell in love with the dictionary on my eleventh birthday,” Fatsis writes about the full-color college lexicon he received on that day. “The dictionary projects permanence, but the language is Jell-O, slippery and mutable and forever collapsing on itself.” \u003ci\u003eUnabridged\u003c\/i\u003e takes listeners to the heart of an industry in flux, celebrating as it does the sheer thrill and wonder of words.","brand":"Simon \u0026 Schuster Audio","offers":[{"title":"Audiobook","offer_id":50161940431152,"sku":"BDmk2t","price":26.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0879\/2784\/9264\/files\/mk2t-Square-cover.jpg?v=1769755975","url":"https:\/\/downpour.com\/products\/book-mk2t","provider":"Downpour","version":"1.0","type":"link"}