Redefining a word isn’t always the same as giving it a new meaning. Sometimes you’re just trying to pare it down to the core concept that people missed the first time around. Dictionary definitions of “camera” used to mention film and plates; now they just refer to a photosensitive surface. But the meaning of “camera” isn’t different; it’s just that now technology lets us see what its essence has been all along.

— Geoff Nunberg on how dictionaries are even grappling with getting ‘marriage’ right

Geoff Nunberg will reveal his word of the year today

(Last year, his word of the year was no. In 2008, it was Joe.)

Any guesses? What word do you think meant the most this year?

By the time the i- prefix was fleshed out, Apple had transformed itself from a culty computer maker to a major religion.

— Linguist Geoff Nunberg says the i-prefix began as an abbreviation for the word Internet, but ended up meaning much more than that.

The word water is commonly pronounced /wʊdər/ (with the first syllable identical to the word wood, so that it sounds like wooder.

— From Philadelphia Dialect, aka the way everyone in Philadelphia says the word water.