Once, every middle-class home had a piano and a dictionary. The purpose of the piano was to be able to listen to music before phonographs were available and affordable. Later on, it was to torture ...

Modern dictionaries have a longer masthead than the average magazine; my copy of Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary lists 25 editors. But the first—and still, by some measures, the ...

In his new book, "Unabridged," Stefan Fatsis unspools the history of the modern dictionary - including why Americans spell colors and favorite without the letter "u." ...

The new book explores the evolution of the dictionary, as well as how we use and create language Unabridged was featured on the Dec. 25 episode of NPR's Book of the Day Fastis' book covers how the ...

Dictionaries are deceptively simple, and incredibly ambitious. NPR's Don Gonyea talks to Stefan Fatsis about his book, "Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) The Modern Dictionary." It's a ...

When considering a traditional dictionary, the words “fast” and “beautiful” don’t come to mind; even our digital dictionaries, sometimes coming in the form of iOS’ Look Up feature when highlighting a ...