Kory Stamper, lexicographer for Merriam-Webster and the writer of the Harmless Drudgery blog, has finished her book, and it'll be for sale in May ( Read more... )

Mel Gibson and Sean Penn to play creators of Oxford English Dictionary
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/aug/02/mel-gibson-sean-penn-oed-creators-professor-madman

Pieces like this make me sad(der) that The Toast is going away:

Two Linguists Explain Pseudo Old English in The Wakehttp://the-toast.net/2016/06/14/two-linguists-explain-pseudo-old-english-in-the-wake/Read more... )

An Oxford study into "everyday life and fatal hazard" during the Tudor period, using coroners' reports:

http://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/features/health-and-safety-tudor-england#

Yikes:

At 3 o’clock in the afternoon of 11 March 1550, John ( Read more... )

And an Atlantic piece on Shakespeare's puns and the forthcoming Oxford Dictionary of Original Shakespearean Pronunciation:

Such Ado: The Fight for Shakespeare's Punshttp://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/ ( Read more... )

As part of the whole #shakespeare400 thing, the Guardian is posting videos of various actors (among them Adrian Lester, Roger Allam, and Eileen Atkins) performing Shakespeare speeches, starting on February 1 ( Read more... )

…you are excited by the fact that the opening voiceover in this trailer (which is set in 17th-century New England) forms its first question - "What came we to this wilderness to find?" - without the use of auxiliary 'do'.

The Witch Trailer and Poster: 1630s New England Was a Scary PlaceRead more... )

I'm going to go ahead and post the last couple of things I've written about trying to read Wolf Hall recently (I figure I should try to read it before I see the miniseries? I have until April - which is when PBS is airing it), even though I am kind of embarrassed by them (why can I not appreciate this book that everyone else in the world loves? ( Read more... )

Kory Stamper is still my favorite lexicographer:

http://korystamper.wordpress.com/2014/12/19/answers-i-wish-i-could-send-etymology-edition/

A laughing etymologist in a humorless crowd
http://blog.oup.com/2014/12/laughing-etymologist-humorless-crowd/

(A post from the Oxford University Press blog on the etymology of words related to laughter and mockery.)