Contents

Books

• The F-Word, 4th ed., 2024. New York: Oxford University Press.
  Heavy revision of 2009 edition. See the dedicated page on this site.
• The Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction, 2021–. Online only. A dictionary of science-fiction terminology on historical principles, based on the OED Science Fiction Citations Project, which I managed.
• The F-Word, 3rd ed., 2009. New York: Oxford University Press.
  Extremely heavy revision of 1999 edition.
• The F-Word, 2nd ed., 1999. New York: Random House.
  Thorough revision of the 1995 edition.
• Jesse's Word of the Day, 1998. New York: Random House.
  Compilation of columns written for the Q-and-A Jesse's Word of the Day website (formerly part of the Random House site, now no longer maintained).
• The F-Word, 1995. New York: Random House.
  Historical glossary of the word fuck.

Popular writing

• Interjectional “shit” in a Drunken 1844 Diary Entry, Strong Language (blog), 13 December, 2022. Describing a 21-year antedating of shit as an interjection.
• Updating the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction, Boing Boing, 16 August, 2022. The initial post of an ongoing series of short essays about additions to the HDSF; see the HDSF tag for all posts.
• Lives in Language: Reinhold Aman, Babel Magazine No. 29 (November, 2019).
• Remembering Reinhold Aman, Strong Language (blog), 13 March, 2019. Obituary of the offensive-words expert.
• The Closing of a Great American Dialect Project, The New Yorker (Cultural Comment blog), 22 September, 2017.
• A Delightful Dictionary for Canadian English, The New Yorker (Culture Desk blog), 23 March, 2017.
• This is the Most Badass Story You'll Ever Read, The Daily Beast, 9 May, 2015.
• The Case for Profanity in Print, The New York Times (Op-Ed), 31 March, 2014.
• ‘New York’ Mag & the Cruel Double Meaning of ‘Biweekly’, The Daily Beast, 2 December, 2013.
• The Case of the Missing O.E.D. Words, The New Yorker (Culture Desk blog), 28 November, 2012.
• Noah Webster, Founding Father. (Review of Joshua Kendall's The Forgotten Founding Father), in New York Times Book Review, May 29, 2011.
• Various articles in Slate, 2004–
• NPR Broadcasts. OK, not "writing" technically. Various interviews and essays on All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, and other shows.
• Four Legs Good, Two Legs Bad, in Man with a Pan: Culinary Adventures of Fathers Who Cook for Their Families, ed. John Donohue, Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2011.
• An Enduring Curse, Playboy, January, 2011.
• "Punctuation", in The Enlightened Bracketologist, ed. Mark Reiter and Richard Sandomir, New York: Bloomsbury, 2007.
• Defining Moment, Bookforum, October/November, 2005. Review of several books relating to Johnson's Dictionary.
• Confronting 'NOO-kyuh-luhr' Proliferation, New York Times, 13 June, 2002.
• Citations, New York Times, 9 September, 2001.
• What Is, and Isn't, In a Word, New York Times, 4 March, 2001.
• The Lexicographer's Apprentice, Lingua Franca December–January 2001.
• (Introduction to) The Lexicon, by William F. Buckley, Jr., New York: Harcourt Brace, 1998.
• Revising The F-Word, Harper's, November 1998.
• Elegant Variations and All That, The Atlantic Monthly December, 1996. Extensive review of Robert Burchfield's revision of Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage.
• The Word Man, Esquire, various dates in 1996.

Scholarly publications

• Reference Work in Progress: The Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction, in Dictionaries vol. 45, 2024.
• How Quotation Paragraphs in Historical Dictionaries Work: _The Oxford English Dictionary_, in Contours of English and English Language Studies, ed. Anne Curzan and Michael Adams, Univ. Michigan Press, 2011.
• (Review of) Chambers Slang Dictionary by Jonathon Green, Dictionaries Vol. 31, 2010.
• American Lexicography, in Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd ed., 2005. With Patrick Hanks. Extensive history of American lexicography.
• (Review of) Programming for Linguists: Perl for Language Researchers, Journal of English Linguistics, Vol. 31, No. 3 (September 2003).
• The OED's North American Editorial Unit, English Today, October, 2002. Introduction to the unit and what we do.
• (Review of) The Oxford English Dictionary Additions Series, Volume III, Dictionaries Vol. 20, 2000. (Written and submitted before I came to OED.)
• Principles for the Inclusion of New Words in College Dictionaries, Dictionaries Vol. 16, 1995.
• A Recent Coinage (Not!), American Speech Vol. 68 No. 2 (Summer 1993).

Academic presentations

• The Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction: An Introduction, Dictionary Society of North America conference, 2023.
• Don't Trust Your Dictionary, Edward S. and Melinda Sadar Lecture in Writing in the Disciplines, Case Western Reserve University, April, 2019.
• Will Libraries Outlive Books?, New America Institute, November, 2015 (panel member).
• Resilience and the Sustainability of Buzzwords, New America Institute, March, 2012.
• Errors and Running Backs: Sports Terms and the Treatment of Technical Vocabulary in Dictionaries, SECOL 78, Callaway Gardens, Georgia, 2011 (invited plenary presentation).
• Google Books and the Digital Transformation of Historical Lexicography (with Ben Zimmer), Google Books library partners conference, Mountain View, 2010 (invited keynote presentation).
• North American Sports Terms in OED3, International Conference on Historical Lexicography and Lexicology 5, Oxford, 2010.
• Dictionaries, the OED, and its Quotations, Great Writing, 2009, Bangor University (invited keynote presentation).
• Implicit and Explicit Definitions of "Slang" in Black-Oriented Dictionaries, Dictionary Society of North America conference, 2009.
• The Next 150 Years of the OED, Modern Language Association conference (Lexicography Discussion Group), 2007.
• The Quotation Paragraph in Historical Lexicography, Dictionary Society of North America conference, 2007.
• A Discussion of the Problems and Possibilities of Language in Internationalizing Liberal Education, Liberal Arts Education in America and the World conference, American Conference of Academic Deans/Phi Beta Kappa, 2005 (invited plenary lecture).
• Slang in Black-Oriented Dictionaries, Dictionary Society of North America conference, 2005. (Not delivered due to illness.)
• Electronic Databases and the Future of Historical Lexicography, Readex Digital Institute, 2004.
• George W. Matsell's Vocabulum: Or, the Rogue's Lexicon: A Reappraisal, Dictionary Society of North America conference, 2003.
• George W. Matsell's Vocabulum: Or, the Rogue's Lexicon, Joseph Schick Lecture, Indiana State University, 2003.
• The OED and the History of Science Fiction Vocabulary, Studies in the History of the English Language II conference, 2002.
• The Future of American Slang in the Oxford English Dictionary, 17th Annual Peter Tamony Memorial Lecture, University of Missouri, 2002.
• Why Dictionary Editors Make the Decisions They Do, Dictionary Society of North America conference, 1999.
• New Words in College Dictionaries, Dictionary Society of North America conference, 1995.
• "Date" in College Dictionaries, Dictionary Society of North America conference, 1995.
• The Use of CD-ROMs for Citation Gathering, Modern Language Association conference (Lexicography Discussion Group), 1993.