What am I saying here, and how do you know?

For that, we must exclaim, “Thank you, dictionary.”

But even that isn’t quite sufficient.

The meaning of words can change over time. What was once acceptable usage in our grandparents’ day might not be the case anymore. Conversely, who can keep up with the almost daily introduction of new words into our vocabulary? (“6-7” --- chosen by Dictionary.com as their 2025 “Word of the Year” --- I’m looking at you.) Who decides what counts and what doesn’t, and what does that process look like?

"A project like UNABRIDGED easily could have been a heavy, laborious book to get through, but Fatsis...once again combines his penchant for indefatigable research with an approachable style, making each chapter relatable and thought-provoking."

Stefan Fatsis takes on the arduous task in this deep dive into the history of that valued reference work. He channels the likes of George Plimpton as he embeds himself as a “lexicographer-in-training” with Merriam-Webster, rifling through decades-old files, slips and citations to try to get a sense of what goes into the decisions for the way words are defined and presented. The descriptions of the company’s facilities are quaint and reminiscent of old movies like Desk Set and Balls of Fire, where researchers and academics argue about minutiae surrounded by shelves and piles of books in various conditions of (dis)order.

A project like UNABRIDGED easily could have been a heavy, laborious book to get through, but Fatsis --- whose previous works include WORD FREAK and A FEW SECONDS OF PANIC (in which he, like Plimpton, seeks to become a professional football player) --- once again combines his penchant for indefatigable research with an approachable style, making each chapter relatable and thought-provoking.

The chapter on “Slurs,” for example, demonstrates that not everyone thinks about words in the same way; they can differ according to age, gender, race, religion, etc. What was once “just the way people talked” is, in many cases, no longer acceptable, which is why the Washington, DC NFL franchise changed its name from “Redskins” to “Commanders,” to the relief of some people and the consternation of others. Fatsis writes, “[We can’t know the publisher’s] state of mind, his political leanings, or his opinions on the civil rights movement. But [his research] can tell us what he determined was useful in assessing a particular word.”

How much of that should matter to the detectives who decide on these definitions? Should politics play a role, or is that too restrictive? People may not like one word or another, and may even find it offensive. But should that be taken into consideration at the cost of education?

However, it’s more than the theoretical and creative that plays a major part in UNABRIDGED. There’s the practical as well. With the publishing industry in flux over the past decade or so, how can you justify the cost of a book that can run thousands of pages when you simply can go to the internet?

I am the proud owner of a two-volume set, Webster’s Universal Unabridged Dictionary, published in 1936. The pages are yellowed, the spines are cracking, and, sure, there are words that have fallen out of use and obviously new ones that the contributors would never have dreamed of almost 100 years ago. But I find something comforting in it --- something that the internet could never give me.

Strictly speaking, according to WUUD, a dictionary is “a book containing the words of a language…” (my emphasis). For that reason, I pray that Fatsis is wrong when he thinks about the threats to this centuries-old institution.