»On the ham in our dictionary

Lexicographer extraordinaire Erin McKean discusses "serependipity" versus "searchability", the joy of the steampunk element in dictionaries, and how the English language is approximately the size of a ham.

In this brief talk she drops some delectable expressions: "charismatic megafauna", "ballpeen", and a comparison between mobile sculpture, traffic cops, and the language we use daily.

And, interestingly, she vets words: how does one determine that words are real, in the sense that they are valid. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction, she asserts; using and loving a word is what makes it real.

Link to talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/161. The embedded widget wasn't embedding.