by John Simpson
We take a bit of a leap now to one of the old classics, at No. 21. Elisabeth Murray published a biography of her grandfather, Sir James Murray, founding editor of the OED, way back in 1977—just after I joined the dictionary staff. She had access to her grandfather’s own personal papers, and also to dictionary archives held in the Bodleian Library in Oxford and at the University Press. She was fortunate in being prescient enough to include the word “web” in her title (Caught in the Web of Words), but too early to exploit that. To my mind this would be higher up the Best Books listing if it didn’t contain such a long middle section documenting in enormous detail the arguments between Murray as chief editor and the managers of the University Press, in which the author leaps acrobatically between one footnote and the next. It’s an important book, so you have to read it—but remember that things are really more interesting than that.
A little higher, at No. 15, comes Charlotte Brewer’s Treasure-house of the Language: The Living OED (2007). Again, this is written by a friend and colleague in the University at Oxford, who also runs a website for OED investigators: “Examining the OED.” Her book tells the story of the dictionary with lighter feet than Elisabeth Murray, and—by being more recent—is able to speculate on the future for the dictionary as a result of the ongoing revision. For me it slips down the table a bit because it doesn’t contain unending, relentless, and uncritical praise of the OED. But then nothing does.
No. 10 is reserved for another of my former colleagues, Peter Gilliver, whose panoramic and thoroughly researched The Making of the Oxford English Dictionary (squeezed into a single volume) doesn’t leave OED beachcombers with many more stones to turn over in future.
It’s jostling for position with Philip Durkin’s Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English at No. 9. Philip’s book was the first to make extensive use of all of the new information we found for the Third Edition of the OED, so it’s a great leap forward in lots of ways. It’s not just for the scholar of etymology, as it gives a picture of the emergence of the modern world through the interchange of words between nations.
We have a lot to thank Simon Winchester for, crashing into the charts at No. 8 with The Surgeon of Crowthorne, the remarkable story of one of Sir James Murray’s American contributors housed as an inmate in the Broadmoor Hospital, then an asylum for people classified as “criminally insane.” The story goes that Murray went to visit him one day, assuming Dr Minor was on the staff of the hospital, and was alarmed to find himself conducted into the inmates’ quarters to meet the unstable gentleman. Murray always vigorously affirmed that he knew he was meeting an inmate, as afterwards did any of his editors who wanted to remain on his staff. If it had not been for Dr Minor (it is said), the OED’s coverage of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century vocabulary would have been immeasurably poorer. Well, you take what you can. The book is a fascinating read, and of course prompted reviewers to ask if we had anyone like that on our books in modern times. We always said no. The title The Surgeon of Crowthorne was considered too opaque for the book’s American audience. They were treated to the populist alternative The Professor and the Madman, which itself prompted reviewers to ask which was which. After you’ve read this, take a look at Simon’s The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the OED (2004).
Places Nos. 2 and 3 are both the lexicographer’s choices, not the people’s selection. At No. 3 comes Jürgen Schäfer’s Documentation in the O.E.D.: Shakespeare and Nashe as Test Cases. German academic Jürgen Schäfer was interested in how good the OED’s Victorian readers were at finding first usages—so he retested their findings. What he discovered was, naturally, what any practising lexicographer knows already—i.e., that nobody is perfect and that things do sometimes get missed. But he was able to put a percentage on this for different authors and by implication even for different readers, and this is helpful. He was also able to send us details of what we (or our ancient predecessors) had missed. Which was also very helpful too, and something not everyone does today—despite the Internet.
No. 2 consists of two volumes that were published posthumously by Schäfer, along the same sort of lines: Early Modern English Lexicography: Vol. 1, A survey of monolingual printed glossaries and dictionaries, 1475–1640 (1989), and Vol. 2, Additions and corrections to the OED (also 1989). Christmas stockings were bulging in Oxford that year. Although they were uninteresting to the general reader, they were more grist to the theory that the dictionary was—at that time—badly out of date.
I’ve already told you my favourite book on the OED, so if you missed the comments on page 264 above, please return there now. No. 1—to spoil the surprise—is Ammon Shea’s Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages. Perhaps I’ll re-read that now I’ve finished this.
INDEX
Note: Entries in boldface italic are the subject of extended discussion.
abates, 114
abbreviations, 100, 116, 218
ability, 188
ableism, 65
Aboriginal languages (Australian), 92
acnestis, 258
acrolein, 273
acronyms, 116
Across the Sea of Stars (Clarke), 327
Adams, Abigail, 155
adjective:noun ratio, 207
adjectives, 29, 42, 86, 117, 159, 268–270. See also individual words
aerobe, 101–102
aerobics, 101–103
affluenza, 105, 116
African, 116–117
agitato, 115
AIDS, 120–124, 135, 143
ailurophile, 258
Allen, Bob, 76
Allingham, Margery, 44
allotment, 92
alphabet, character of letters of, 263–264
American, 117–118, 307
American dictionaries, 164–165
An American Dictionary of the English Language (Webster), 165
American English, 112–113, 196, 235–236
American Journal of Diseases of Children, 191
amphibian, 102
anaerobie, 102
Angelman syndrome, 191
Angelman, Harry, 191
Anglo-French, 28, 41, 171, 203–204, 309
Anglo-Saxon. See Old English
animal rights, 103
animations, for OED Online, 322–323
animatronics, 105
Annals of Neurology (journal), 191
antidisestablishmentarianism, 166
anti-gravity, 327
Antiquities of England and Wales (Grose), 43
antiretroviral, 105
AOR, 105
apostrophes, 68, 270
“Appeals Lists,” 34
apprenticeship, 28
aptitude test, for potential lexicographers, 244–256
Arabic, word borrowings and, 213
Archimedes, 240
Aristotle, 93
arrivistes, 115
arse, 232
Artists in Crime (Marsh), 51
asafoetida, 169
Ashmoore, Mary, 297
-asm words, 330
Auden, W. H., 79
Augarde, Tony, 110
Austen, Jane, 153, 203
Australian English, 51–52, 90–95, 337
Australian National Dictionary, 90–95, 245
authorial creativity, 158–159, 205–206
authors, most-cited, 202–203
awayday, 105–106
babelicious, 187
Babes in the Darkling Wood (Wells), 157
Bacon, Francis, 103–104
Bailey, Nathan, 163–164, 233
balcony, 249, 250
balderdash, 316
Balderdash & Piffle (television programme), 316–320
balti, 108
bannock, 215
Barber, Francis, 177
Barnes, Julian, 242
Bartlett, John, 61
Battle of Balaclava, thin red line and, 60–63
Baudry (Monsieur), 67
bean-counter, 125
; beaux-arts, 323
Beck, Harald, 333
beck and call, 170, 201
bed-sitter, 221
beer pong, 221
Benbow, Tim, 141, 210–211, 256–257, 285
Biblical Repertory, 279
bilingual glosses/bilingual dictionaries, 160–161
biodegrading, 105
bird-watching, 126–127
Bird Watching (Selous), 126
Blairism, 187
blended words, 116
blueprint, 131–133
blue-sky thinking, 324
Blunden, Edmund, 45
Bodleian Library, 25, 26
Bokenham, Osbern, 173
Bonde, William, 162
boomerang, 92
Boorstin, Daniel, 181
bootable, 103
booted up, 103
bootstrap, 103
booze cruise, 105
Borrowed Words (Durkin), 344–345
borrowings, as source of new words, 114–115. See also loanwords
Boswell, James, 127, 177
Bradbury, Malcolm, 181
Braddon, Mary, 203
brat, 215
Brave New Words (Prucher), 327, 344
breaker, 70
Brewer, Charlotte, 344
brickwall, 173–174
brick wall, 172–174
Britain, lack of government involvement in language planning/oversight, 298–299
British expansionism, effect on language, 10, 114, 156, 167–169, 185, 326
British LibraryNineteenth Century Newspaper Collection, 280
Brontë, Charlotte, 34–36, 58–59
Brown, Lancelot “Capability,” 251
Brown, Lesley, 27–28, 30, 41, 60–61, 130–131
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 202
bubblewrap, 105
buddy, 124
bugbears, 243, 244
Burchfield, Robert (“Bob”), 8–9, 26, 86, 97, 129, 170, 220
Australian National Dictionary project and, 90–91
CB radio slang and, 70–71
computerising OED and, 130
dictionary tea-time and, 75
interview with, 15–22
management style, 77–81
as marshaller of the language, 48–49, 50
modern literary texts as sources and, 53
predicting future of English language, 111–112
retirement of, 174–175
Burney, Fanny, 203
burpee, 194–195
Burpee, Royal H., 195
busboys/busgirls, 67
buses, 66–67
business-speak, 106
by a long chalk, 314
Byron, May, 43
Caesar, Julius, 229
Caesar cipher, 229
calepin, 162
Campbell, Colin, 63
card-file system. See dictionary slips and index cards
Caribbean influence on English, 108–111
Castanheda, Fernão Lopes de, 168
The Castle of Otranto (Walpole), 2
Caught in the Web of Words (Murray), 344
Cawdrey, Robert, 160, 163
CB radio slang, 70–71
CD-ROM, Second Edition of the OED on, 133, 147, 179–181, 193, 200, 203
Celtic words, 215–216
Chadwyck-Healey English Poetry Database, 278
Chadwyck-Healey Literature Online (LION) database, 279
cham, 176–177
Chambers, Ephraim, 173
channel-surfing, 107, 108
Chapman, George, 162–163
Characters and Anecdotes of the Court of Sweden (Ristell), 294
Charkin, Richard, 129–130, 133–134, 139, 142–144, 209
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 35, 205, 309–310, 321
Chesterfield (Lord), 154
chicken tikka masala, 108
chinoiserie, 185
chip, 291
Chomsky, Noam, 72
Chowdharay-Best, George, 61
Christie, Agatha, 240–241
clan, 215
Clarke, Arthur C., 327
Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (Grose), 43
clingfilm, 105
clues, 321–322
COBUILD project, 73
codology, 53
Coles, Elisha, 163
Collected Letters (Shaw), 14
A Collection of Shaggy Dog Stories, 317
Collins English Dictionary, 73
communication, with daughter Ellie, 192, 276–277, 302–303, 339
Compact Oxford English Dictionary, 10–11
comparative linguistics/philology, 165, 211, 231
compound words, 33, 42, 50, 60, 115, 122, 123–124, 126–127, 132, 138, 143, 157, 172–174, 198, 214, 288, 307, 312
computational linguistics, 73
computational vocabulary, 106
computer, 139–141
computerisation of OED, 129–131, 133–136, 139–142, 144–145, 149, 152–155, 157–158, 171–172, 174–178
Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, 82–86
Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 9, 20–21, 80–81, 245
conclusion, 35
consonants, 41, 263
content, 78
context
definitions and, 123
meaning of same and, 151–152
conversion, 116
conveth, 215
Cook, James (Captain), 91–92
Cooper, James Fenimore, 313
Coote, Charles, 56
Coren, Alan, 317
Coren, Victoria, 317
costume, 323
couch potato, 291
counter-gravity, 327
Country Life (magazine), 45
court-martial, 42–43, 50
Coward, Nöel, 311
Cowper, William, 35
cradle, 93
Craigie, William, 265, 267
creel, 177
crime, 243
Crimean War, thin red line and, 60–63
critical readers, proofreading by, 89
crosswords, 246
crowd-sourcing, 70, 71–72, 327–328
cupboard, 173
cyberspace, 107
Cyclopaedia (Chambers), 173
daggers, indicating obsolete words, 268–269
Daniel Deronda (Eliot), 202
Dante, 144
databases
lexicographical research using, 278–279, 288–289
OED as searchable, 134–135, 139, 284–285
structure of OED, 156
data buses, 67
data filtering, 322–323
dates, search function and, 157–158
deadlines, 58–59
dictionary, 87–88
debit card, 106–107
debouched, 13–14
definitions
restyling, 100–101, 202, 225, 237, 253, 273–275
writing and the theory of, xi, 20, 28, 39–40, 42, 47, 50–52, 63, 73, 88, 95, 106–109, 118, 122–124, 151, 157, 163–165, 240–242, 277, 280, 338
Dekker, Thomas, 270
Delegates of the University Press, 210, 211, 224, 225
demo, 125
demonology, 138
Department for Continuing Education (formerly External Studies) (Oxford University), 222–223
department library research, 46–48, 57, 59–64, 88, 277, 279–280, 292, 295–297
deployment, 114
derivatives, 123
Deutsches Wörterbuch (Grimm dictionary), 58
D.H. Lawrence and Feminism (Simpson), 86
Dickens, Charles, 125, 205, 239–240
Dictionarie French and English (Hollyband), 161
dictionaries, 161–163
innovation in, 73
time to complete, 57–58
Dictionary (Eliot), 161
dictionary entries
altering style of, 100
editing, 88–89, 320
online editing of, 286–288
order
of meanings in, 212–213
dictionary history, 160–166
Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, 76
Dictionary of National Biography, 48
Dictionary of Occupational Terms, 46
Dictionary of Old English, 288
Dictionary of Slang (Partridge), 52
Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (Partridge), 47
Dictionary of South African English, 245
Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (DOST), 267–268
Dictionary of the Underworld (PDU) (Partridge), 47–48
dictionary slips and index cards, 8, 14, 30–35, 41–44, 48, 51, 69–71, 74, 99–104, 113, 197–198, 277, 280, 292, 321, 338
dictionary tea-time, 74–76
diegesis, 32
digitising, 150
dirt bike, 99
disability, 188–190
discontent, 78
dishybilly, 53
disinformation, 103, 135
Divine Comedy (Dante), 144
Documentation in the O.E.D. (Schäfer), 345–346
dool-owl, 53
downloadable, 107
Drayton, Michael, 279
dribs and drabs, 201–202
Dryden, John, 50
Durkin, Philip, 344–345
Duke of Wellington, 118–119
Early English Books Online (EEBO), 279
Early Modern English, 3, 140, 156, 173–174, 232
Early Modern English Lexicography, Vols. 1 and 2 (Schäfer), 346
ebonics, 66
edamame, 186
editing dictionary entries, 88–89, 320
online, 286–287
editorial policy
OED, 116–119
for revised OED, 209–214, 224–226
EFTPOS, 65, 106
ekamanganese, 272
Elements of the Grammar of the English Language (Coote), 56
Eliot, George, 202
Eliot, Thomas, 161
emigrant, 94
emoji, 186
Empire of Words (Willinsky), 202, 343
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 72, 111
Endimion and Phoebe (Drayton), 279
English Dialect Dictionary, 93
English Dictionary (Coles), 163
English language
Germanic origins of, 215–217, 321
Modern English, 213–214, 216
Norman Conquest and, 14, 40–41, 49, 167, 171, 203–204, 216
enthusiasm, 330–331
epicentre, 11–12, 101
Epistle to a Lady (Swift), 251
Ersine, Noel, 310
Esquire (magazine), 318
Estuary English, 66
etymology, 7, 21, 85, 89, 110, 136, 153, 163–164, 200, 212, 216–217, 241, 266, 268, 286.