OED on CD-ROM



The history of the Oxford English Dictionary (continued)



The First Edition 1857 - 1928



V


Although two editors and their staffs had been working separately from 1888, it was
still considered by the Delegates of the Clarendon Press that the rate of progress ought
to be increased, and it was clear that this could only be done by the appointment of a
third editor. With this in view, William Alexander Craigie, then a lecturer at the
University of St Andrews, was invited to Oxford in the summer of 1897, and after
assisting Dr Bradley with the letter G, and Dr Murray with I and K, began separate
editing with Q in 1901. From that date two sections of the Dictionary had their home in
the Old Ashmolean Building in Broad Street, which had been left vacant by the removal of
the Museum some years before. To these a third was added in 1914, when Charles Talbut
Onions, who had at Dr Murray's invitation joined the staff in 1895, and had between 1906
and 1913 prepared special portions of M, N, R, and S, began with a separate staff to
edit the later portion of that letter (Su-Sz).

With four editors and their staffs concurrently at work prospects for an early
conclusion to the whole seemed brighter than they had ever been since the full magnitude
of the undertaking became apparent. Unfortunately it was not long before various events
began to mar these prospects, and bring unwelcome delays. The outbreak of the Great War
soon began to reduce the staffs by withdrawing from them their younger members, and in
time even some of those more mature in years. The loss of these trained workers for
three or four years was naturally a serious handicap for those that remained. The next
severe blow was the death of Sir James Murray (he had been knighted in 1908) on 26 July
1915, after more than thirty-eight years of connection with the Dictionary and
thirty-three during which he had supplied copy to the printer without intermission. The
transference of his staff to the Old Ashmolean, or to quarters near it, helped greatly
to strengthen the three remaining sections, but there was no possibility of compensating
for the loss that the work had sustained. If his wish had been fulfilled to the extent
of seeing his eightieth birthday in 1917, it would not have coincided with the end of
the Dictionary, as he has hoped, but those two years would have brought the completion
of the work appreciably nearer in spite of the difficulties of the time.

With the end of the war, some of the assistants returned to their posts, and for some
four years the work went on steadily (although the two younger editors were not
continuously engaged on it nor able to give their whole time to it), until the death of
Dr Bradley on 23 May 1923 removed another of its mainstays. By that time it was clearly
too late to think of finding another editor; the best that could be done was to make
full use of the more experienced assistants in the preparation of special sections of
the letters that still remained. By this means it was possible for Dr Craigie, in spite
of his removal to the University of Chicago in 1925, to take part with Dr Onions in the
editing of W, and so enable the work to be finished in the beginning of 1928, almost
exactly seventy years from the date on which the Philological Society had decided to
make ?a completely new English Dictionary?.

With work on three or four letters going on simultaneously, and publication of each
taking place as soon as the sections were ready, the sequence of the various parts of
the Dictionary became more irregular after 1900, as will be seen from the following
table:


Murray
 

Bradley
 

Craigie
 

Onions


I J K 1899-1901
    
 

L 1901-3
   

O 1902-4
  

Q 1902
  
  

R-Re 1903-5
  

P 1904-9
 

M 1904-8
 

N 1906-7
  
  

Re-Ry 1907-10
  
 

S-Sh 1908-14
   

T 1909-15
 

St 1914-19
 

Si-Sq 1910-15
  
  

V 1916-20
 

Su-Sz 1914-19

 

W-We 1920-3
 

U 1921-6
 

X Y Z 1920-1

  

Wo-Wy 1927
 

Wh-Wo 1922-7


The total number of pages in the first edition was 15,487; of these no less than 7,207,
or nearly half of the entire work were edited by Sir James Murray.

The early volumes of the Dictionary were as a rule published in parts of 352 pages at a
price of twelve shillings and sixpence each, with three smaller sections introduced to
make the divisions coincide with the end of the letters B, C, and E. The size of these
parts necessarily involved a considerable time in the preparation of each, and a
corresponding interval between the dates of publication. Towards the end of 1894 it was
decided that a shortening of these intervals was desirable, and the new arrangement
explained in the following announcement was adopted.

The Letters, A, B, C, and E of this great undertaking having been already published, the
Delegates of the Clarendon Press have been urged from many quarters to consider the more
frequent publication of the subsequent portions of the work, in smaller instalments, as
each is completed by the Editors, so as to supply students of the English Language and
Literature more promptly with the results of the latest researches.
In response to this demand, the Delegates have arranged for the punctual issue of the
letters D and F in Quarterly Sections. The new issue will begin with the simultaneous
publication of the opening part of each letter on November 15, and further instalments
of the Editors' work will be regularly published thereafter on the first day of each
Quarter, in such alternation as may seem desirable. The Delegates have no reason to fear
any interruption of this continuous publication of the Dictionary on this plan.

This expectation was realized, and quarterly sections of 64 pages, or double sections of
128 (occasionally even a triple section of 192) were steadily issued for the next twenty
years, until the reduction of staffs caused by the war, and other losses, made it
impossible to continue with the same regularity. For the convenience of those who
preferred them, however, the larger twelve-and-sixpenny parts were still issued whenever
a sufficient number of consecutive single or double sections were available to make one.

At the time this change was made, a new name for the Dictionary was also introduced,
though no change was made on the title-page. On the cover of the section containing
Deceit to Deject, published on 1 January 1895, above the title, appeared for the first
time the designation ?The Oxford English Dictionary?, which was repeated on every
section and part issued after 1 July of that year. The new name, being more distinctive
than the old, steadily came more and more into use, and the abbreviation OED tended to
supplant NED, although the latter was frequently employed for many years. A third
abbreviation, HED (with H for Historical), though employed for a number of years in
Notes and Queries, never attained general currency. Popularly the work was often
referred to as Murray's, and the Philological Society by a natural tradition has
continued to call it ?the Society's Dictionary?.


VI


During all these years of work, in addition to the growing appreciation which it
steadily received, the progress of the Dictionary was diversified by a few extraneous
events. On 12 October 1897, a large number of the readers, sub-editors, assistants, and
other helpers were enabled to meet each other at Oxford by the generosity of the Provost
and Fellows of The Queen's College, who on that date gave a complimentary dinner to ?Dr.
Murray, Mr. Bradley, and some others who have helped in the production of the Historical
English Dictionary?. The time was a fortunate one, for in that year it was still
possible for some of the early workers to shake hands with those who were just beginning
to take up the task which they had already carried on so long. Only a small number of
the company which met that evening lived long enough to see the completion of the work.

In the same year the Dictionary was by permission dedicated to Her Majesty Queen
Victoria, as intimated on a special page inserted in the part for January 1898.

Up to 1905 the whole expense of preparing and printing the Dictionary was borne by the
Oxford University Press. In that year, however, a contribution was made towards the cost
of the sixth volume, which was also recorded on a separate page in these words:

This sixth volume is a memorial of the munificence of the Worshipful Company of
Goldsmiths, who have generously contributed five thousand pounds towards its production.

When the completed dictionary was published in April 1928, the first copies were
presented to His Majesty King George, and to Calvin Coolidge, President of the United
States, as the highest representatives of the two great English-speaking nations.

On 6 June of the same year the Goldsmiths' Company celebrated the completion of the work
by a dinner in the Company's hall in London, at which contributors and workers again had
an opportunity of meeting, and of hearing the Prime Minister, Mr Stanley Baldwin,
commend the results of their labours in eloquent and graceful terms.

During the progress of the work academic honours were from time to time conferred upon
the editors by various universities, and at its completion the University of Oxford
marked the occasion by conferring the honorary degree of D.Litt. on the two surviving
editors, the Secretary to the Delegates of the Press, the Publisher to the University,
and the Printer to the University.

Sir James Murray, as already mentioned, had in recognition of his services to
scholarship received the honour of knighthood in 1908, the announcement being made in
the Birthday list of 26 June, and the same distinction was bestowed on the third editor
in the Birthday list of 3 June, 1928.

After the completion of the Dictionary in 1928, editorial work did not immediately
cease. Since the OED had been published over a period of forty-four years, it was
inevitable that many later additions to the language, both of new words and of new
senses, should be lacking in the earlier volumes, and that even the later should to some
extent present similar deficiencies. To remedy this as far as possible, the succeeding
five years were devoted to the preparation of a supplementary volume, the scope of which
is explained in the next section. After this work had been finished the original
ten-volume New English Dictionary on Historical Principles was, in August 1933, reissued
as The Oxford English Dictionary in twelve volumes. An additional volume was issued at
the same time, containing the Supplement of new words and meanings, the Additions and
Emendations prefixed to the original volumes, revised and amplified, a List of Spurious
Words, and a List of Books quoted in the principal work; this last forming, as the 1933
Preface has it, ?a bibliography of English literature such as does not exist elsewhere?.

Back to contents 

Copyright © Oxford University Press 2009
