Brooklyn, NY | San Diego, CA | San Mateo, CA
Also known as: monickels
I have co-hosted the language-related public radio show A Way with Words since October It is broadcast nationwide via radio, streaming, and podcast to hundreds of thousands of listeners every week. I am also an American lexicographer and dictionary editor, including the Official Dictionary of Unofficial English (, McGraw-Hill), the Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang (, Oxford University Press), and the online Double-Tongued Dictionary, which tracks slang, jargon, and neologisms from the fringes of English. I am a co-founder and former editorial director of Wordnik.com, an online dictionary. Besides being widely quoted in the media, I write about language for such newspapers as the Washington Post and the New York Times, have contributed to the British book series The Language Report, and am a public speaker about dictionaries and slang. I also write a fortnightly column about English-language slang for the .-million-circulation Malaysia Star and have worked as a business and music journalist. I serve as vice president of the American Dialect Society, an academic organization devoted since to the study of English in North America. I am also a member of the journals editorial board and help organize the societys annual word of the year vote. I am a member of the Dictionary Society of North America and the Linguistic Society of America. I hold a degree in French from Columbia University and have studied at the Universit Paris Diderot. I was an editor of the four-volume Historical Dictionary of American Slang (-, Oxford University Press) and have contributed as a lexicographer to other dictionaries for Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and Collins. I also serve as marketing manager for the San Diego Museum of Man. Specialties Lexicography, broadcasting, language, slang, new words, neologisms, radio hosting, emceeing, interviewing, compiling dictionaries, managing lexical projects, building online communities, conducting primary research, writing, editing, news writing and editing, journalism, user experience, online marketing, online promotions, newspapers, freelancing, fact-checking, proofing, copy-editing public speaking on slang, new words, language change, and dictionaries.
