Back to previous page Dictionary goes from A to Z Author compiles meanings of one-letter words Dec 08, 2005 Matt Ehlers, Staff Writer Craig Conley climbed atop the podium in the basement of The Regulator Bookshop, introduced himself and talked a little about his work, then announced he was about to do something "rather bizarre." He turned to the X's and read aloud from a dictionary. Now before you decide that this must be the dullest book reading in the history of the genre and that no newspaper account could possibly liven it up, have a look at a few of those definitions. X n. a kiss, put at the end of a personal letter.X n. a signature, such as an illiterate person's. X n.a precise point on a map or diagram, as in "X marks the spot." It took Conley 15 years to put together "One Letter Words: A Dictionary." Whenever he came across a one-letter word, he'd make a note of it, eventually building a small dictionary that he posted on the Web. The hardcover version, recently published by HarperCollins, contains more than 1,000 definitions. Each letter is represented. Sure, it's a bit um, different, but that's what attracted Conley to one-letter words in the first place. "I think it's a little offbeat," he said during a conversation after the reading. "'Strange' is probably a good word, too." To Conley, a 39-year-old textbook author who lives in Chapel Hill, the English language is a vibrant, mutating and flexible thing. His dictionary revels in that. "I guess I find something poetic in the fact that one little word can be rife with meaning," he said. The dictionary "is my own celebration of my love of language." As far as Conley knows, he's the first person to put together a dictionary of one-letter words since a 16th-century Buddhist lexicographer. There's a certain Zen to Conley as well: He wore a red skinny tie to the reading. For a number of years, Conley had considered trying to have his dictionary published. Every once in awhile he'd work to interest a literary agent, but then rejection would keep him from trying again. Then a little over a year ago, he wrote to another agent. This one bit almost immediately, as did HarperCollins. Alison Callahan, senior editor at HarperCollins, tends to handle fiction titles. But the dictionary sounded like a fun idea, she said. And when she mentioned it at an editorial meeting, the dictionary sparked a humorous conversation. "It opens up your thinking in a different way, which is what we hope books will do." It's not just one-letter words that do it for Conley. At < href="http://www.oneletterwords.com/">www.oneletterwords.com, word herders can find online versions of "The Dictionary of All-Vowel Words," "The Dictionary of All-Consonant Words," and "Magic Words: A Dictionary." The dictionary of one-letter words had a similar online beginning. Conley gleans his words from all sorts of sources. Click to the i's in the all-vowel dictionary, and you'll find this one from the world of pop music: i-yi-yi-yi n. an exclamation of wonderment, as in the Madonna song "I Want You." There are limited uses for the kinds of dictionaries Conley produces, but a game of Scrabble could be livened up with the words he has gathered. They're a kind of flip-and-fun read, full of trivia not compiled anywhere else. Conley already has some big ideas about his future in dictionaries. He would like to publish an updated version of the one-letter word dictionary, and hopes his other books will be published as well. But first there's this little notion for a movie. Conley's book contract contained boilerplate language on movie rights. At first, he just laughed about the idea of a film based on the dictionary of one-letter words. But the more he thought about it, the more he warmed to it. Perhaps Brad Pitt could star? "I don't see why it would be an impossible thing," a smiling Conley said of a movie before adding, "I don't have any ideas so far." © Copyright 2005, The News & Observer Publishing Company, A subsidiary of The McClatchy Company Back to previous page

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