Tag Archives: interest-korystamper

  1. What It Really Means To Call A Woman Hysterical

    by Kory Stamper published September 25th, 2018 Is hysterical a gendered insult? It began, unsurprisingly, on cable TV. In 2017, the Senate intelligence committee called Attorney General Jeff Sessions to testify about his Russian contacts as well as conversations about those contacts with Donald Trump prior to the 2016 general election. The hearings were widely discussed, as were all things having to do with Russia, but they …

  2. The Dictionary Is Insulted: The Problem With Pocahontas

    by Kory Stamper published June 26th, 2018When we use dictionaries, we think that we are getting a pure view of language, one uncluttered by spin, by misuse, by shifting context. But, lexicographers like me will tell you that language is context. Every meaning in a dictionary is written based on the contextual uses of a word—and context, like people, can get confusing and messy. In …