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Erin McKean

Erin McKean (born 1971) is an American lexicographer. Erin is a founder and the CEO of the new online dictionary Wordnik.^[1][2] She was previously the Principal Editor of The New Oxford American Dictionary, second edition^[3].

McKean is also the editor of Verbatim: The Language Quarterly and the author of Weird and Wonderful Words, More Weird and Wonderful Words, Totally Weird and Wonderful Words, and That’s Amore. She has a novel, The Secret Lives of Dresses, coming out from Grand Central.^[4]She writes about dresses in her blog, A Dress A Day, and about lexicography at Dictionary Evangelist. She is currently a member of the advisory board of the Wikimedia Foundation^[5] and of Credo Reference^[6]. She has written "The Word" column in The Boston Globe during times when Jan Freeman has been on leave.^[7]

McKean has formulated 'McKean's law', a variation on Muphry's law: "Any correction of the speech or writing of others will contain at least one grammatical, spelling, or typographical error."^[8]

External links

Biographies

• “Official biography” at Dictionary Evangelist
• McKean’s speaker profile for Wikimania 2007 Taipei
• McKean’s biography as member of the Wikimedia Advisory Board
• McKean’s biography at Stokefire

Blogs

• A Dress A Day
• Dictionary Evangelist
• McKean’s posts at Powells.com

Talks

• Video of a speech by Erin McKean at Google
• TED Talks: Erin McKean redefines the dictionary at TED in 2007

Profiles and interviews

• New York Times: “In Land of Lexicons, Having the Last Word”
• Chat at Wordsmith.org
• NPR: “Googling for New Words”
• iCommons: "A word or two with Erin McKean"
• Portfolio.com: "A Woman of Many Words"

Other

• Verbatim magazine
• Wordnik, an online dictionary that aims to collect all the words

References

1. ^ "Christian Science Monitor". 2009-03-16. http://features.csmonitor.com/backstory/2009/03/16/new-online-dictionary-redefines-look-it-up/.  
2. ^ "Credo Reference". http://corp.credoreference.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2249&Itemid=30.  
3. ^ Erin McKean, ed (May 2005,). The New Oxford American Dictionary (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 2051. ISBN 0195170776.  
4. ^ "How Erin McKean Sold Her Blog-Based Book". MediaBistro. 2008-11-07. http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/behind_the_deal/exclusive_interview_how_erin_mckean_sold_her_blogbased_book_99973.asp.  
5. ^ Wikimedia Foundation contributors (2009-02-26). "Advisory Board - Wikimedia Foundation". Wikimedia Foundation. http://wikimediafoundation.org/w/index.php?title=Advisory_Board&oldid=38606#Erin_McKean. Retrieved 2009-03-20.  
6. ^ "Credo Reference". http://corp.credoreference.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2249&Itemid=30.  
7. ^ Chillax - If it works like a word, just use it. Boston Globe 2008-08-03
8. ^ "A word to the wise". (12 August 2008). The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada), pp. A14.