The History of the Oxford English Dictionary
A talk by Howard Jackson

The story begins in 1858, when the Philological Society, which had been founded only in 1842, passed a resolution to ‘compile a complete New English Dictionary’. However, it was twenty years later that the project really took off and real progress was made: in 1879 the Philological Society signed a contract with the Clarendon Press (alias Oxford University Press) for the publication of a ‘historical dictionary not to exceed 7000 pages’.

More importantly, a new editor was appointed: James A H Murray, a Scotsman, a self-taught linguist, and at that time a schoolmaster at Mill Hill School. James Murray revived the work on the OED, recruiting an army of voluntary readers, who submitted quotations to the OED. He eventually became the full-time editor and moved the operation to Oxford, where additional editors were appointed.

The first part of the dictionary (A-Ant) was published in 1884. It was eventually completed in 1928. Murray himself died in 1915. The dictionary, whose original proposed size was 4 volumes and 6,400 pages, turnedout to comprise 10 volumes and 15,490 pages. In 1928, the dictionary was called ‘A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles’. It was republished in 1933 in 12 volumes, with a Supplement, under the title ‘Oxford English Dictionary’.

Where did it go from there? Come to the talk on 8 March to fill in some of the details and to find out how the OED has developed since first publication.

Howard Jackson

Be assured that the photograph above is of James A H Murray and not of our speaker! Howard Jackson has written eight books and numerous articles on grammar, vocabulary and lexicography. Not only is he an invited speaker at conferences all over Europe who has an international reputation for his work, but he is also a member of our u3a and currently runs our English Language Group.