Lost for Words: The Hidden History of the Oxford English Dictionary

by Lynda Mugglestone

Book Overview

The untold story of the complex word battles fought by the creators of the first Oxford English Dictionary. The Oxford English Dictionary ( OED) holds a cherished position in English literary culture. The story behind the creation of what is indisputably the greatest dictionary in the language has become a popular fascination. This book looks at the history of the great first edition of 1928, and at the men (and occasionally women) who distilled words...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300106998
• ISBN13: 9780300106992
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

The History of the OED from Its Proofs

It is always a joy to use the _Oxford English Dictionary_. I haven't looked into my microphotographed version of the first edition in years, since I got access to the _OED_ online, which is a splendidly faster and better way to use the wealth of its words. By folklore (and by original intent) the _OED_ was supposed to include every English word. Indeed, looking at the vast accumulation the _OED_ presents, with its lovely objective history of each word and illustrative quotations, it is easy to imagine that they are all there, and that they were accumulated by lexicographical boffins who just kept putting in everything they found, ordered and alphabetized it, and issued it in print. The near-perfection of the _OED_ does not give much room in itself for researching just how it was made. Lynda Mugglestone has been able to give a unique history of this unique enterprise in _Lost for Words: The Hidden History of the Oxford English Dictionary_ (Yale University Press) because of what she says was a chance discovery; however, it is easy to understand that since she has edited _The Oxford History of the English Language_ and written _Lexicography and the OED_, it is clear that chance favored her prepared mind. She "chanced" upon proof sheets from the first fascicle of the first edition of the _OED_, dating from 1883, a section recording proofs of the words from "abandon" to "Anglo-Saxon". The proofs did not have the cool, immaculate presentation of a final form; they "were instead marked by a mass of scrawled annotations and suggested deletions." And these handwritten additions were often acerbic. "Useless" was the remark by the word "anencephaloid", and "Rubbish! Mere tradesman's make-up" adorns "anerithmoscope". Clearly, the cool columns of the finished _OED_ were hiding contention, and a tale of all-too-human endeavor. Mugglestone has brilliantly used the evidence of the proofs to examine just how the monumental work came to be. Much of this book is about the determination of what to leave out of the dictionary. Mugglestone writes, "Version by version the final text was built up, a process of dispute and negotiation, accretion and dissent." The idealistic goal of including every English word proved to be impossible for many reasons. The _OED_ could not, because of the Victorian times in which it was born, include all the naughty words, for instance. But there were much bigger problems that demonstrate the reaches of lexicographical philosophy. If a famous author (Shakespeare is great for this) invents a nonce word, one used for just one instance, does that get included? What if the author is not so famous? What about words that are recently borrowed from other languages but have not made themselves at home? What about scientific words? There were so many of them, and some were so obscure; it particularly pained the chief editor, James Murray, to leave them out, as his youthful drive to self-education led him through botany, entomo