Allan A. Metcalf

In 2010, Allan Metcalf wrote the book about OK, which is not only America's greatest word but the world's greatest word. If you wonder why, get the book. It's also available in Chinese translation! You might need the ISBN to track down the Chinese version: 978-957-13-5683-9.

In 2015, his new book, also from Oxford U Press, highlights the greatest words for each of the different generations in America, starting with the Republican generation of Jefferson's time but emphasizing the most recent generations - "selfies" and "awkward" and "YOLO" from the young Millennials, "slacker" and "whatever" from their predecessors Generation X, "groovy" and "hippie" and "self-esteem" from their predecessors the Boomers, and so on - each with examples and explanations. Where does your generation fit in?

He has written five previous books about our language, and a book about expository writing (Writing to the Point, be sure to get the sixth edition), and a few others. See his website, allanmetcalf.net. And on March 23, pause to celebrate OK Day, the anniversary of the birth of OK in a Boston newspaper in 1839.

He's a professor of English at MacMurray College in Illinois, with a B.A. from Cornell University and M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He's also executive secretary of the American Dialect Society, a national scholarly association for the study of American English, past and present. In 1990 he inaugurated that society's annual choice of a Word of the Year.

He posts weekly to the Lingua Franca blog of the Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/author/ametcalf/