True color the strange and spectacular quest to define color, from azure to zinc pink

begonia (n.): 3 -s : a deep pink that is bluer, lighter, and stronger than average coral (see coral 3b), bluer than fiesta, and bluer and stronger than sweet william - called also gaiety What could "bluer than fiesta" possibly mean? While editing dictionaries for Merriam-Webster, Kory Stamper found...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Stamper, Kory (Author)
Format: Books Print Book
Language:English
Published: New York, NY : Alfred A. Knopf, 2026.
Edition:First hardcover edition.
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:begonia (n.): 3 -s : a deep pink that is bluer, lighter, and stronger than average coral (see coral 3b), bluer than fiesta, and bluer and stronger than sweet william - called also gaiety What could "bluer than fiesta" possibly mean? While editing dictionaries for Merriam-Webster, Kory Stamper found herself drawn again and again to the whimsical color definitions in Webster's Third New International Dictionary-especially when compared to the dry and impersonal entries that filled the rest of the volume. Stamper couldn't help but Who was the voice behind these peculiar definitions? Meet I. H. Godlove, an erratic but brilliant up-and-coming scientist who was one of the experts Merriam-Webster hired in 1930 to help revise the dictionary to reflect a rapidly modernizing world. His fascinating life mirrors the wild and winding journey that color science, color psychology, and color production took through the twentieth century. Stamper tracks these industries as they move into the atomic age and intertwine in strange and surprising ways, spanning two world wars and involving chemical explosions, an unexpected suicide, dramatic office politics, and an extraordinary love story.
Item Description:"A Borzoi book."
Physical Description:x, 302 pages : color illustrations ; 22 cm
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:9781524733032
1524733032
9780525434610
0525434615
Author Notes:KORY STAMPER is a lexicographer who has written dictionaries for nearly thirty years at Merriam-Webster, Cambridge Dictionaries, and Dictionary.com. She is the author of Word by Word . Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, New York magazine , and The Washington Post, and she blogs regularly on language and lexicography at www.korystamper.com.