There's an abiding myth that the landmark dictionaries are the work of one man, in a dusty paper-filled garrett tirelessly working away singlehandedly. But really it took a village: behind every Big Daddy of Lexicography was usually a team of women, keeping the garrett clean, organising the piles of papers, reading through all the citations, doing research, writing definitions, editing, subediting...essentially being lexicographers, without the credit or the pay.
Academic Lindsay Rose Russell, author of Women and Dictionary-Making, talks about the roles of women in lexicography: enabling male lexicographers to get the job done, but also making their own dictionaries, and challenging the very paradigms of dictionaries.
Allusionist 31: Post-Love
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Breaking up is hard to do, and it's hard to put into appropriate words.
Comedian Rosie Wilby seeks a better term for 'ex'; family law barrister Nick Allen runs through the vocabulary of divorce; and listeners share some of their worst break-up lines.
NOTE: this episode is not full of bawdy talk, but there are adult themes and a couple of category B swearwords.
A BIT (OF ADDITIONAL MATERIAL) ON THE SIDE:
The Museum of Broken Relationships is coming to LA - do you have anything to exhibit?
Listener Felipe reminded me about French artist Sophie Calle's Take Care Of Yourself, an exhibition about the email in which her boyfriend dumped her.
Want more tales of break-ups? Get yourself to You Broke Up How?
Here's Esther Perel on ghosting, AKA the coward's way out.
Watch Rosie Wilby's TEDx talk 'Is Monogamy Dead?'
Let the UK government explain the difference between civil partnership and same-sex marriage.
Here's the transcript of the episode.
RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
quadrumanous
CREDITS:
Rosie Wilby is a comedian and writer. You can find her live show dates, written work and more at rosiewilby.com and on Twitter @rosiewilby; you can hear her podcast, and her radio show Out in South London is on Resonance FM.
Nick Allen is a family law barrister. I'm hoping you don't require the services of one of those, but if you do, Nick is the best.
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman, with editorial help from Hrishikesh Hirway from Song Exploder. The music is by Martin Austwick.
Don't go breaking my heart: let's keep our love alive at facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow and twitter.com/helenzaltzman.
