"If you have a big enough dictionary, just about everything is a word"
About this Quote
Language is a bouncer with a clipboard, and Dave Barry is pointing out how easy it is to sneak past the velvet rope if you print a longer guest list. The joke lands because it exposes a very modern insecurity: our craving for rule-based permission in a realm that’s basically ruled by usage, fashion, and power. With a “big enough dictionary,” the line suggests, you can retroactively legitimize anything you’ve ever said, misspelled, or invented at 2 a.m. Dictionary as moral authority, but also dictionary as endlessly expandable loophole.
Barry’s intent isn’t to dunk on dictionaries so much as on the way we wield them. People cite them like statutes, as if language were a courtroom drama where the most pedantic person wins. His phrasing deflates that fantasy. “Just about” is doing extra work: it admits there are still boundaries, but implies they’re fuzzy, negotiated, and often social rather than logical. “Everything is a word” isn’t a literal claim; it’s a jab at how quickly slang, brand names, and internet coinages go from “not a real word” to “new entry, 2024 edition.”
Context matters: Barry comes out of American newspaper humor, a tradition that treats everyday authority figures (bureaucrats, experts, self-serious scolds) as ripe targets. Here, the expert is the dictionary-as-gavel. The subtext is almost democratic: language belongs to the crowd more than the gatekeepers. If enough people use a sound to mean something, the dictionary eventually stops arguing and starts taking notes.
Barry’s intent isn’t to dunk on dictionaries so much as on the way we wield them. People cite them like statutes, as if language were a courtroom drama where the most pedantic person wins. His phrasing deflates that fantasy. “Just about” is doing extra work: it admits there are still boundaries, but implies they’re fuzzy, negotiated, and often social rather than logical. “Everything is a word” isn’t a literal claim; it’s a jab at how quickly slang, brand names, and internet coinages go from “not a real word” to “new entry, 2024 edition.”
Context matters: Barry comes out of American newspaper humor, a tradition that treats everyday authority figures (bureaucrats, experts, self-serious scolds) as ripe targets. Here, the expert is the dictionary-as-gavel. The subtext is almost democratic: language belongs to the crowd more than the gatekeepers. If enough people use a sound to mean something, the dictionary eventually stops arguing and starts taking notes.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
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