Lexicographer.
Born in England in 1959, daughter of Royal Air Force officer Gordon Maitland Barber (1925-2007) and teacher Patricia Frances “Pat” Clarke (1926-2021), she came to Winnipeg at the age of eight and attended the University of Winnipeg. Becoming fluent in French, German, and Italian, after graduation she taught English for a year in Rouen, France before moving to Ottawa, then Toronto, to pursue a career in lexicography. Known as “Canada’s Word Lady,” she was the founding editor of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary. She wrote two best-selling books: Six Words You Never Knew Had Something to do with Pigs and Other Fascinating Facts about the Language from Canada’s Word Lady (2007) and Only in Canada You Say: A Treasury of Canadian Language (2008), and was well-known for her radio spots, lectures, and blogs about the unique aspects of Canadian English. She died at Toronto, Ontario on 24 April 2021 and was buried in the Riverside Cemetery at Hartney.
Obituary [Gordon Maitland Barber], Winnipeg Free Press, 16 August 2007.
Obituary [Patricia Frances Barber], Winnipeg Free Press, 8 January 2021.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 1 May 2021.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 1 May 2021
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