[4] In 1889, when Joseph Wright began editing the English Dialect Dictionary, a group of American philologists founded the American Dialect Society with the ultimate purpose of producing a similar work for the United States.

[6] The first volume of the Dictionary of American Regional English, covering the letters A-C, was published in 1985.

[5] Members of the organization include "linguists, lexicographers, etymologists, grammarians, historians, researchers, writers, authors, editors, professors, university students, and independent scholars.

"[7] Its activities include a mailing list,[8] which deals chiefly with American English but also carries some discussion of other issues of linguistic interest.

The New York Times stated that the American Dialect Society "probably started" the "word-of-the-year ritual".