The Oxford English Dictionary reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a comprehensive multi-volume dictionary published by the Oxford University Press. The Oxford English Dictionary is generally regarded as the definitive dictionary of Modern English, especially British English. It has 2.5 million quotations under around 300,000 headwords.

Although a British institution, the Oxford English Dictionary has a policy of attempting to record all the known uses and variants of a word in the varieties of world English, even obscure and outdated ones, hence also lists American variants of spelling or meanings e.g., center.

Table of contents

1 History 2 Electronic versions 3 Editors 4 Future 5 Miscellanea 6 See also 7 Further Reading 8 External links

History

It was originally published between February 1, 1884 and 1928, in over 100 instalments or "fascicles", under the title A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (NED). After the last fascicles were released, the completed New English Dictionary was published in ten large volumes in 1928. In 1933 the dictionary was republished in 12 volumes (the last two, very large, volumes of the original New English Dictionary were each split into two smaller volumes but otherwise unchanged) under the new title Oxford English Dictionary. An additional (13th) volume, the Supplement, was added at that time to provide definitions that had been written since the original fascicles were published. Work began in 1955 on a new Supplement to update and supersede the 1933 one, and it was eventually published in 4 volumes (1972, 1976, 1982, 1986).

The First Edition was reprinted in 1971 in 2 volumes by the device of reducing each page photographically to 1/2 its original size and so 4 original pages were shown on each page (4-up format). This was called the Compact Edition and was distributed through book clubs. It was packaged with a slipcover that held both volumes and a large magnifying glass to facilitate reading the small type. The new Supplement, in turn, became the 3rd Compact Edition volume in 1987.

The Second Edition (OED2) was published in print in 1989 and on CD-ROM, for the first time, in 1992. Pronunciation of headwords are illustrated by International Phonetic Alphabet instead of a personal symbolism of Editor James Murray. The Compact Edition version of the Second Edition (this time printed 9-up, allowing it to be a single volume) followed in 1991.

Electronic versions

There have been three versions of the second edition CD-ROM released, each of which has updates and software changes over the previous versions. Version 1 (1992) had the same corpus as the printed Second Edition, and the CD itself was not copy-protected. Version 2 (1999) had some additions to the corpus, and updated software with improved searching features, but had extensive copy-protection that made it inconvenient to use. Version 3 (2002) has yet more words and software improvements, and its copy-protection is, though not completely removed, considerably less annoying than version 2's.

Since March 2000, the OED has been available online to subscribers. The online database contains the entire Second Edition and is also updated quarterly with revisions which will be included in the Third Edition (currently in preparation). It is the most up-to-date edition available. Common subscribers are large organizations, such as universities, some of which do not use the Oxford English Dictionary Online portal and have legally downloaded the entire database into the university library computers. Some public libraries and companies have subscribed as well. In 2004 a lower subscription rate was introduced for individuals, making it more affordable for home use (approx USD300 or GBP200200 per annum for individuals in 2004).

Editors

There were a number of editors over the 70-year course of preparing the First Edition. Herbert Coleridge had had the job for barely a year when he died of tuberculosis aged 31. Frederick Furnivall had great enthusiasm and knowledge, but lacked the temperament for such a project. It was James Murray, the editor from 1879, who really got the project off the ground, but the scale of the project grew so much, as volunteer readers submitted new words and examples, that it still was not finished when he died in 1915. He was succeeded by Henry Bradley, William Craigie, and C. T. Onions. One of its most prolific early contributors, Dr. W. C. Minor, was at the time imprisoned in a criminal lunatic asylum.

Later editors included Robert Burchfield, Edmund Weiner, and John Simpson.

Future

A Third Edition (the "New Edition", intended as a nearly complete overhaul) has been in preparation since 1990. Additions and updates towards this New Edition, along with the entire text of the Second Edition, can be viewed on the official website by subscription (see link below).

Miscellanea

• J. R. R. Tolkien was once an employee of the Oxford English Dictionary.
• William Shakespeare is the most-quoted male.
• George Eliot is the most-quoted female.
• The Bible is the most-quoted work.

See also

• Dictionary
• The Century Dictionary
• Concise Oxford Dictionary
• New Oxford Dictionary of English
• Shorter Oxford English Dictionary

Further Reading

• Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, edited by John Simpson and Edmund Weiner, Clarendon Press, 1989, twenty volumes, hardcover, ISBN 0198611862
• Caught in the Web of Words: James Murray and the Oxford English Dictionary, K. M. Elisabeth Murray, Yale University Press, 2001, trade paperback, ISBN 0300089198
• Empire of Words, The Reign of the Oxford English Dictionary, John Willinsky, Princeton University Press, 1995, hardcover, ISBN 0691037191
• The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary, Simon Winchester, Oxford University Press, 2003, hardcover, ISBN 0198607024
• (UK title) The Surgeon of Crowthorne / (US title) The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary, Simon Winchester, HarperCollins, 1998, hardcover, ISBN 0060175966

External links

• OED's official website
• OED Facts and Figures

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