Dictionary's Definition of 'Dictionary' Takes Editorial Team Nine Months to Write

The editorial team of the Whitmore English Dictionary has announced the completion of a revised definition for the word 'dictionary,' a project that required nine months, fourteen drafts, four emergency editorial meetings, and what editor-in-chief Dr. Sylvia Headword described as 'the most recursive challenge a lexicographer can face: defining the thing you are.' 'Defining "dictionary" is like trying to take a photograph of the camera you're holding,' Dr. Headword explained. 'Every word in our definition appears in the dictionary we're defining. The definition of "dictionary" uses words, and words are what dictionaries define. At a certain point, you start questioning the nature of reference itself.' The first draft read: 'A book or electronic resource containing an alphabetical list of words with definitions.' The editorial team rejected it after noting that it excluded non-alphabetical dictionaries, dictionaries organized by concept, and dictionaries that include more than just definitions. Draft seven read: 'A reference work providing information about the form, meaning, usage, history, and pronunciation of words or lexical items of a language or languages.' This was rejected for being 'accurate but joyless.' Draft twelve briefly contained the phrase 'you know what a dictionary is,' which was submitted by a junior editor who Dr. Headword described as 'not wrong but also not employed here anymore.' The final definition, approved unanimously after a six-hour session, runs to sixty-three words and includes four sub-senses. It begins: 'A reference work, in print or digital form, that lists the words of a language or languages, or of a specific subject, typically in alphabetical order, providing information about their meanings, pronunciations, etymologies, and usage.' 'It's not perfect,' Dr. Headword said. 'But then, no definition is. Which is, itself, a reason dictionaries exist.'