Wordsmith's Delight

Paul McFedries is a self-confessed neologophiliac – a lover of new words. His Word Spy web site and its associated e-letter (also available as an RSS feed) have been on my must-read list for years. Word Spy online is “devoted to lexpionage, the sleuthing of new words and phrases.”

McFedries has recently transformed all that lexpionage into an engaging and thought-provoking new book, Word Spy: The Word Lover's Guide to Modern Culture. The book’s premise is that emerging new words offer insights into our culture as it is and serve as “linguistic harbingers” of how the culture will evolve.

Beginning with an overview of how new words come into being, McFedries goes on to show how they reflect the pace of our accelerated culture, where the only way to keep up is to multitask and where time-poor fastrackers despair of achieving work-life balance. Succeeding chapters are organized around the new vocabulary of food, feelings, entertainment, advertising, work, relationships, aging, parenthood, politics, and more.

I’m a writer, a language buff, a word collector, and a poet. McFedries puts me to shame with his eagle eye for the genuinely inventive turn of phrase and his keen instinct for new words likely to remain a part of the lexicon. The thousand or so words featured in the book, by and large, made their first print or online appearances in 1980 or later, don’t yet appear in any general dictionary, and can be found in at least three different print or online sources. But McFedries cheerfully admits to “shameless” fudging of the rules when it suits his purpose.

Some things I love about the book: The opening chapter on how new words enter the language and the appendix on prefixes, suffixes, and modifiers, together, form a fine and utterly painless introduction to key linguistic principles. The chapters are strewn with a treasure trove of quotes and epigraphs on language that only a devoted wordmeister could have assembled. McFedries infuses his text with a low-key sense of humor and, remarkably, avoids tipping his political hand, even when tackling subjects as fraught as political correctness, gay relationships, and the war on terrorism. He has also made good choices about which new words deserve formal definitions and which are better mentioned in passing. All the featured words are dated and all the formal definitions include print or web citations.

A few quibbles: The book final chapter fails to match the thematic strength of the opening one – the book just ends. Unlike the definitions, the language quotes and epigraphs are simply identified by author’s name, making it difficult to locate and dip further into their sources. (Then again, I’m also a footnote buff.) At times, pronunciation keys that would have been useful are not included. And, even admitting that I’m a glass-half-empty type, McFedries’s sunny perspective on our culture feels much happier and less serious than the world feels. However, as Martha might say, that’s probably a good thing.

Until I read the blurb on the book’s inside cover, I was unaware that McFedries has authored many titles in the “Complete Idiot’s Guide” series. That lack of awareness, in fact, is a really good thing. Given my aversion to thinking of readers as dummies and idiots, I might never have become addicted to the Word Spy online, let alone invested time and money in the book. That would have been a real loss.

Word Spy, the book, uses “stats, stories, trends, and tidbits” to put the featured words in cultural context, so you always feel you’re reading a coherent narrative, not a glossary or dictionary. Nevertheless, it will also be a reference that deserves space on the bookshelves of any dedicated word lover – or, for that matter, anyone who does much writing for business or pleasure.

Go check out the site. Go buy the book.