Kory Quotes

Most lexicographers had no clue that such a career path existed until they were smack in the middle of it. Neil Serven, an editor at Merriam-Webster, is an outlier. He sums up his brief musings on how dictionaries came to be thusly: "I imagined dark halls and angry people. ~ Kory Stamper

Every evening the girls of the house gathered about me on the mats, and after chasing away Kory-Kory from my side - who nevertheless, retired only to a little distance and watched their proceedings with the most jealous attention - would anoint my whole body with a fragrant oil, squeezed from a yellow root, previously pounded between a couple of stones, and which in their language is denominated 'aka'. And most refreshing and agreeable are the juices of the 'aka', when applied to ones, limbs by the soft palms of sweet nymphs, whose bright eyes are beaming upon you with kindness; and I used to hail with delight the daily recurrence of this luxurious operation, in which I forgot all my troubles, and buried for the time every feeling of sorrow. Sometimes ~ Herman Melville

We think of English as a fortress to be defended, but a better analogy is to think of English as a child. We love and nurture it into being, and once it gains gross motor skills, it starts going exactly where we don't want it to go: it heads right for the goddamned electrical sockets. We dress it in fancy clothes and tell it to behave, and it comes home with its underwear on its head and wearing someone else's socks. As English grows, it lives its own live, and this is right and healthy. ~ Kory Stamper

Are you God?" Kory asked, his voice soft.
"Um, no, but I appreciate the compliment. I'm Charley. ~ Darynda Jones

Editors are, at heart, twelve: if we can construe something as a fart or sex (or a fart AND sex) joke, we will. ~ Kory Stamper

I was working from home at the time and sometimes indulged in a little wander around my yard, a hard reset before I got back to work. Today, however, I had ignored the nice weather and instead put my head on my desk, forehead pressed to the Formica and arms covering my skull.

I had joked with one of my yoga-loving co-workers that I was developing a series of poses that we could do at our desks. A head-in-hands slump over galleys called "Drudge's Hunch". The arms overhead seated stretch called "Fluorescent Salutation". The hand out position used to catch the fire door so it didn't slam and bother everyone. That was "Worrier's Pose".

My current pose was called "Nuclear Fallout". ~ Kory Stamper

It wasn't story (good or bad) that pulled me in; it was English itself, the way it felt in my braces-caged mouth and rattled around my adolescent head. ~ Kory Stamper

Every life has the potential to be lived deeply. - William Powers ~ Kory Kogon

I was a terribly simple girl when it came to problems and my plate was so full the vegetables were falling off. ~ Kory M. Shrum

ALL words are made-up: Do you think we find them fully formed on the ocean floor, or mine from them in some remote part of Wales? ~ Kory Stamper

... the language we use is insightful. When we say we are paying attention to something, we are recognizing that attention comes at a cost. ~ Kory Kogon, Adam Merrill & Leena Rinne

The man's tongue was like a heat-seeking missile and it blew Kory to pieces. ~ Gina A. Rogers