Horizon Information Portal

e-branch

Home

My Account/Renew Loans

Find Magazine Articles & more

The dictionary people : the unsung heroes who created the Oxford English dictionary / Sarah Ogilvie.

by Ogilvie, Sarah.

View full image

Alfred A. Knopf, 2023.

Oxford English dictionary -- History.

English language -- Lexicography -- History -- 19th century.

English language -- Etymology.

Encyclopedias and dictionaries -- History and criticism.

Lexicographers -- Biography.

9780593536407 (hc.)

1st American ed.

x, 370 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.

"This is Borzoi book"--T. p. verso.

"Originally published in hardcover in Great Britain by Chatto & Windus, an imprint of Vintage, a division of Penguin Random House Ltd, London, in 2023"--T. p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 349-352) and index.

"The Oxford English Dictionary is one of mankind's greatest achievements, and yet, curiously, its creators are almost never considered. Who were the people behind this unprecedented book? As Sarah Ogilvie reveals, they include three murderers, a collector of pornography, the daughter of Karl Marx, a president of Yale, a radical suffragette, a vicar who was later found dead in the cupboard of his chapel, an inventor of the first American subway, a female anti-slavery activist in Philadelphia... and thousands of others. Of deep transgenerational and broad appeal, a thrilling literary detective story that, for the first time, unravels the mystery of the endlessly fascinating contributors the world over who, for over seventy years, helped to codify the way we read and write and speak. It was the greatest crowdsourcing endeavor in human history, the Wikipedia of its time. (...)"

"“I am sure that lovers of our language will not willingly let die the names of those who... have labored in the cause of the Dictionary,” wrote Oxford English Dictionary editor James Murray in 1892. In this charming debut history, Ogilvie, another former editor of the OED, answers her predecessor’s 130-year-old imperative. After stumbling upon Murray’s leather-bound diaries and address books in the OED archives, Ogilvie set out to uncover “the dictionary people,” 3,000 individuals across the globe who heeded the call to be part of the largest crowdsourcing effort in history. Invited through newspaper notices to “read the books they had to hand, and to mail to the Editor of the Dictionary examples of how particular words were used,” individuals from all walks of life responded, including “three murderers, a pornography collector, Karl Marx’s daughter, a President of Yale, the inventor of the tennis-net adjuster, a pair of lesbian writers who wrote under a male pen name, and a cocaine addict found dead in a railway station lavatory.” Ogilvie not only introduces readers to a fascinating cross-section of Victorian society, but notes the groundbreaking nature of the OED project; for example, “the radical and open process of the Dictionary’s making... included hundreds of women” at a time when they were often excluded from academic pursuits. The whimsical narrative is also educational, providing extensive insight into the process used to trace the origins of words. Readers will be enthralled."--Publishers Weekly.

Sarah Ogilvie is a linguist, lexicographer, writer, and technologist. Raised in Australia, she has lived and worked in both the United States, teaching at Stanford, and Britain. She currently teaches at Oxford University, where she develops and directs a new degree integrating humanities with technology.

Horizon Information Portal 3.24_8902M

© 2001-2013 SirsiDynix All rights reserved.

Horizon Information Portal