Erin McKean (born 1971) is an American

lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoretica ...

Early life and education

McKean was born in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

. She graduated from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

with a BA/MA in Linguistics. As an undergraduate, she worked in a junior capacity on the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary. She has since served on the Visiting Committee to the University of Chicago's

Regenstein Library The Joseph Regenstein Library, commonly known as "The Reg" is the main library of the University of Chicago, named after industrialist and philanthropist Joseph Regenstein. It is one of the largest repositories of books in the world and is noted ...

, and she helped organize a dictionary-themed exhibit, ''The Meaning of Dictionaries'', there in 2007.

Career

McKean is a founder of Reverb, which makes the online dictionary

Wordnik Wordnik, a nonprofit organization, is an online English dictionary and language resource that provides dictionary and thesaurus content. Some of the content is based on print dictionaries such as the ''Century Dictionary'', the ''American Heritage ...

. She was previously the editor in chief of US Dictionaries for Oxford University Press and Principal Editor of ''

The New Oxford American Dictionary The ''New Oxford American Dictionary'' (''NOAD'') is a single-volume dictionary of American English compiled by American editors at the Oxford University Press. ''NOAD'' is based upon the ''New Oxford Dictionary of English'' (''NODE''), published ...

'', second edition. McKean is also the editor of ''VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly'', and edited a collection of work from that publication, ''Verbatim: From the bawdy to the sublime, the best writing on language for word lovers, grammar mavens, and armchair linguists'' (Mariner Books, 2001). McKean's novel ''The Secret Lives of Dresses'' was a best-seller in Australia, and has been optioned for film. She writes about dresses in her blog, ''A Dress A Day''. She wrote frequently for "The Word" column in ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

''. from 2008 through 2011 and wrote "The Week in Words" for ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' from 2011 through mid-2013. She has also written for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

On Language ''On Language'' was a regular column in the weekly '' New York Times Magazine'' on the English language discussing popular etymology, new or unusual usages, and other language-related topics. The inaugural column was published on February 18, 19 ...

column. She was previously a member of the advisory board of the

Wikimedia Foundation The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., or Wikimedia for short and abbreviated as WMF, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California and registered as a charitable foundation under local laws. Best know ...

and is an advisor to Credo Reference. McKean's 2007 TED talk, "Redefining the Dictionary", was the genesis for the founding of Wordnik.com. She has also spoken at Pop!Tech,

Mark Hurst Mark Hurst (born December 13, 1972) is a journalist, author, broadcaster, game designer, and Internet entrepreneur. He founded the GEL ("Good Experience Live") tech conference, and hosts a weekly technology-focused radio program, ''Techtonic'', o ...

's third annual Gel conference, and Thinking Digital, and gave a Wordnik demo at the All Things Digital D8 conference in 2010. McKean sews her own clothes and often makes "stunt dresses" for speeches, including the

Tetris ''Tetris'' (russian: link=no, Тетрис) is a puzzle video game created by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute over the appro ...

-themed dress she wore to speak at the Web 2.0 Summit in 2009. In 2010, McKean was named an honorary fellow of the

Society for Technical Communication The Society for Technical Communication (STC) is a professional association dedicated to the advancement of the theory and practice of technical communication with more than 4,500 members in the United States, Canada, and the world. The society pu ...

. McKean has formulated 'McKean's law', also known as Muphry's law: "Any correction of the speech or writing of others will contain at least one grammatical, spelling or typographical error." "Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked ‘female'.", a quote from McKean's blog, A Dress A Day, has been widely shared on social media. Since the original post features a large picture of

Diana Vreeland Diana Vreeland (September 29, 1903 – August 22, 1989) was a French-American fashion columnist and editor. She worked for the fashion magazine ''Harper's Bazaar'' and as editor-in-chief at ''Vogue'', later becoming a special consultant to the ...

, the quote has occasionally been misattributed to her.

Books

* ''Weird and Wonderful Words'' (illustrated by

Roz Chast Rosalind Chast (born November 26, 1954) is an American cartoonist and a staff cartoonist for ''The New Yorker''. Since 1978, she has published more than 800 cartoons in ''The New Yorker''. She also publishes cartoons in ''Scientific American'' and ...

, with an introduction by

Simon Winchester Simon Winchester (born 28 September 1944) is a British-American author and journalist. In his career at ''The Guardian'' newspaper, Winchester covered numerous significant events, including Bloody Sunday and the Watergate Scandal. Winchester has ...

, Oxford, 2002) * ''More Weird and Wonderful Words'' (illustrated by Danny Shanahan), Oxford, 2003) * ''Totally Weird and Wonderful Words'' (Oxford, 2006) * ''That’s Amore'' (Walker & Company, 2007) * ''The Secret Lives of Dresses'' (Grand Central, 2011) * ''Aftercrimes, Geoslavery, and Thermogeddon: Plus 157 More Words From a Lexicographer's Notebook'' (TED Books, 2011) * ''The Hundred Dresses'' (illustrated by Donna Mehalko, Bloomsbury, 2013)

References

External links

*
McKean biography
as member of the Wikimedia Advisory Board * {{DEFAULTSORT:McKean, Erin 1971 births American bloggers American book editors American lexicographers Living people People from Chicago University of Chicago alumni Wikimedia Foundation Advisory Board members Women linguists American women bloggers Women lexicographers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers