New York Times Magazine, “On Language With Ben Zimmer”

March 21, 2010

Gerald Marzorati, “On Language With Ben Zimmer” (New York Times Magazine, Mar. 21, 2010)

For more than 30 years, William Safire talked back to Americans about how they went about talking. He founded our On Language column in February 1979 and proceeded to write tens of thousands of words about phrases (fashionable and not), usages (proper and not), roots (definitive and not) and his own donnish taste — not! Bill was a democrat — very small “d” — with a passion for everyday discourse and a desire not for the last word but for a conversation about conversation. Long before the Internet came along (and provided him with a fresh trove of linguistic stuff), he built a Web-like community of language mavens who fed him tips, amplified, hondled (that’s for you, Bill!) and filled in from time to time when he took his summer vacation.
One of those mavens (he was actually among those vaunted few Lexicographic Irregulars whom Bill expected to keep him on his toes) was Ben Zimmer, and this week he takes over as the magazine’s On Language columnist.

Read the rest here.

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