Susan M. Butler

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Susan M. Butler AO (born 1948) is an Australian lexicographer. She edited and published the Macquarie Dictionary, Australia’s guide to English, from its first edition in 1981 until the seventh in 2017, retiring in 2018. Butler originally aimed to be a composer and studied Latin and Greek at the University of Sydney before working in a factory. In 1970 she joined Jacaranda Press as a research assistant for a proposed Australian English dictionary and, over about a decade, became editor, producing the Macquarie Dictionary’s first edition in 1981. She also wrote The Dinkum Dictionary: The Origins of Australian Words and The Aitch Factor: Adventures in Australian English. In 2018 she was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to the community as a lexicographer and author and to publishing.