John Simpson spent nearly 40 years thinking about the most intricate meanings of the words we use. The former chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary joins us to talk about how new words are added, how meanings evolve and about the effect technology has on how we speak. He writes about his life in language in “The Word Detective: Searching for the Meaning of It All at the Oxford English Dictionary” (Basic Books).
This episode originally aired on November 15, 2016.
