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Women and Dictionary-Making: Gender, Genre, and English Language Lexicography
Abstract
Dictionaries are a powerful genre, perceived as authoritative and objective records of the language, impervious to personal bias. But who makes dictionaries shapes both how they are constructed and how they are used. Tracing the craft of dictionary making from the fifteenth century to the present day, this book explores the vital but little-known significance of women and gender in the creation of English language dictionaries. Women worked as dictionary patrons, collaborators, readers, compilers, and critics, while gender ideologies served, at turns, to prevent, secure, and veil women's involvements and innovations in dictionary making. Combining historical, rhetorical, and feminist methods, this is a monumental recovery of six centuries of women's participation in dictionary making and a robust investigation of how the social life of the genre is influenced by the social expectations of gender.
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“For example, the over-lexicalisation of female promiscuity (Russell, 2018), hypergamy (women seeking partners of higher financial means and/or status) and the 'halo effect' have provenance and are well-documented sexist societal tropes (Ging et al., 2020; Sugiura, 2021).”
From Mainstreaming the Blackpill: Understanding the Incel Community on TikTok (2023) · cites this paper as Russell, 2018
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Mainstreaming the Blackpill: Understanding the Incel Community on TikTok
Solea, A. I., & Sugiura, L. (2023) · European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research · doi:10.1007/s10610-023-09559-5 · Cited by 105
McConnell‐Ginet, S. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108641302 · Cited by 61
Neologising misogyny: Urban Dictionary’s folksonomies of sexual abuse
Ging, D., Lynn, T., & Rosati, P. (2020) · New Media & Society · doi:10.1177/1461444819870306 · Cited by 52
“As Lindsay Rose Russell (2018) points out, lexical reference sources have long been biased against women.”
BackgroundLanguage and Gender in the Early Modern Mediterranean
Dursteler, E. R. (2022) · Renaissance Quarterly · doi:10.1017/rqx.2021.329 · Cited by 6
Nicholls, P. J. (2019) · Feminist Modernist Studies · doi:10.1080/24692921.2019.1663090 · Cited by 2
On Dictionaries and Gender Representations
Vișan, R. (2021) · Gender Studies · doi:10.2478/genst-2022-0010 · Cited by 2
(2022) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009105965.004 · Cited by 1
The impact of Horae Subsecivae on the EDD's coverage of western words
Ruano–García, J. (2021) · English Today · doi:10.1017/s0266078421000043 · Cited by 1
Labeling: “What Are You, Anyway?”
McConnell‐Ginet, S. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108641302.002 · Cited by 1
Review: Feminist Rhetorical Questions and the Broadening Imperative
Smith, M. D. (2020) · College English · doi:10.58680/ce202030480 · Cited by 1
Knowles, E. M. (2018) · Dictionaries · doi:10.1353/dic.2018.0018 · Cited by 1
Kostadinova, V., Yáñez‐Bouza, N., Wiemann, M., et al. (2020) · The Year s Work in English Studies · doi:10.1093/ywes/maaa001
Generalizing: “All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, but Some of Us Are Brave”
McConnell‐Ginet, S. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108641302.004
Addressing: “All Right,My Man …Keep Your Hands on the Steering Wheel”
McConnell‐Ginet, S. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108641302.005
Authorizing: “When I Use a Word It Means Just What I Choose It to Mean … [But Who] Is to Be Master?”
McConnell‐Ginet, S. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108641302.008
Reforming/Resisting: “It’s Like a Kind of Sexual Racism”
McConnell‐Ginet, S. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108641302.007
John Dunton’s The Ladies Dictionary
Kukorelly, E. (2021) · FILLM studies in languages and literatures · doi:10.1075/fillm.16.03kuk
McConnell‐Ginet, S. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108641302.009
McConnell‐Ginet, S. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108641302.010
McConnell‐Ginet, S. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108641302.001
Marking/Erasing: “Instead of Saying ‘Normal Americans,’ You Can Just Say ‘Americans’”
McConnell‐Ginet, S. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108641302.003
Putting Down: “[They] Aren’t People – They’re Animals”
McConnell‐Ginet, S. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108641302.006
McConnell‐Ginet, S. (2020) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108641302.011
(2018) · Language in Society · doi:10.1017/s0047404518001367
Fagyal, Z. (2022) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009105965.012
The History of Books and Printing
Noonan, S. L. (2025) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009205443.010
Women’s Voices in the History of English
Percy, C. (2025) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009205443.029
English Dictionaries from the Eighteenth Century Onwards
Brewer, C. (2025) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009205870.027
Xu, X., & Chen, W. (2026) · Humanities and Social Sciences Communications · doi:10.1057/s41599-026-07056-8 · Cited by 1
“For instance, through targeted analyses of dictionary de fi nitions and illustrative sentences, scholars have consistently identi fi ed that women are often con fi ned to peripheral and domestic roles in these reference works (Landau 2001; Tenorio 2000; Russell 2018; Hu et al. 2019).”
Metadata
- Authors
- Russell, L. R.
- Affiliations
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- Corresponding author
- Russell, Lindsay Rose
- Venue
- Cambridge University Press eBooks
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Published
- 2018-08-04
- OpenAlex
- W3037138990
- Cited by
- 31
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 2
- FWCI
- 7.53
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cambridge University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Lexicography and Language Studies
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender Studies in Language
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Historical Linguistics and Language Studies
- Keywords
- lexicography, English dictionaries, gender ideology, history of lexicography, feminist literary criticism
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