A dictionary, despite its heroic efforts to pin down language, is destined for failure the moment a single word is printed; for language, with its eternal mutations, is forever uncontainable. Award-winning essayist Ilyan Stavans explores the human need to isolate meaning: owner of hundreds of dictionaries, he follows a fascinating, zigzagging lexicography across many languages including English, French, Spanish, German, Arabic, Hebrew, Latin and Cyrillic. A fabulous selection of strange inconstancies, unusual origins and extraordinary anecdotes.