OED on CD-ROM



The history of the Oxford English Dictionary (continued)



The First Edition 1857 - 1928



II


Before the Dictionary again becomes prominent in the Transactions of the Philological
Society, a new and important element had entered into its history. James A. Murray, who
had been a master at Mill Hill School from 1870, and had already made his mark in
philological studies, had been approached in April 1876 by the firm of Macmillan with
regard to a new dictionary. The idea of this, a dictionary to rival those of Webster and
Worcester, had originated with Harper and Brothers of New York, who wished Macmillan to
take part in the enterprise. Acting on the advice of Dr Richard Morris, who had
consulted Furnivall in the matter, Macmillan proposed to Murray that he should undertake
the editorship. Murray was not prepared to agree to this, unless the new dictionary was
to be a great advance on the existing ones in respect of scholarship. Macmillan had
heard of the intentions of the Philological Society, and asked whether the material
already collected for it might not be available. Having, as the result of this
suggestion, obtained some portions of the material, Murray prepared specimens of the
kind of dictionary which he considered would be worth doing, and these were put into
type. His ideas went far beyond those of the publishers, and a considerable time was
spent in trying various modifications, till these reached the lowest point which in his
opinion would have any real value. The divergent views of the publishers on this head
were capable of adjustment, but difficulties arose in connection with the terms for the
use of the Society's materials, and the negotiations came to an end.

The exhibition of the specimens produced from the material already collected, however,
had the effect of again interesting the Philological Society in its old project. By May
1877 matters had begun to move; a letter from Furnivall written in that month tells
where the various letters of the alphabet were to be found in the hands of the
sub-editors. It was fortunate that the scattered material was, with the exception of one
small portion, actually recoverable; one sub-editor, sending part of what he had,
promised ?to search for the rest, which had been disposed by his wife in a lumber-room?.

Encouraged by these signs of new life, the Society again began to look round for a
publisher, but at first without result, for with its small membership and limited funds
the Society itself had nothing to offer but the material for the Dictionary, and no
publisher was prepared to face the expenditure that would be required. Early in 1877,
however, there were already foreshadowings of the ultimate connection with the Oxford
University Press. Details of the scheme were submitted on behalf of the Society, and at
the request of the Delegates a specimen of the proposed work was prepared by Murray.
This was ultimately approved to such an extent that ?in the Spring of 1878, the then
President of the Society, Mr H. Sweet, was authorized to open negotiations with the
Delegates for the publication of the Dictionary?. As the prime mover in this new
development, Murray also had a meeting with the Delegates at Oxford on 26 April, and
?thought there was good hope that the issue would be favourable?. This impression was
confirmed by a letter (communicated to the Society on May 17) ?from the Secretary of the
Delegates of the Clarendon Press, Prof. Bartholomew Price, saying that the Delegates had
authorized him to enter into negotiations with the Society for the publication of the
Dictionary on the basis of the terms submitted by the President to the Delegacy. The
Council had accordingly directed the Dictionary Committee to meet Prof. Price, and try
to come to terms with him.? Two such meetings were held before 21 June, and a basis of
agreement was arrived at in the following October.

?The substance of the proposals? made by the Society as a basis for negotiation ?was,
that the Delegates should advance the capital required for completing and publishing the
work, that the gross profits should in the first place be applied exclusively to
repaying their advances with interest, the net profits being then divided equally
between the Delegates and the Society, that Dr J. A. H. Murray should be the Editor, and
that he should be allowed ten years to complete the work in?. Various alterations were
made in these proposals were finally embodied in two contracts, one between the
Delegates and the Society, and the other between them and Dr Murray. In order to enter
into this contract the Society had to be incorporated on a legal basis, and was
registered in proper form on 2 January 1879. The contract, which is dated 1 March 1879,
is printed in an Appendix to the Society's Transactions for 1877-9, where it occupies
ten pages, with the addition of a specimen page of the proposed Dictionary, containing
the words castle and persuade, and some subordinate entries based on these. At that
stage the Dictionary contemplated was one estimated ?to occupy not less than 6,000 nor
more than 7,000 pages, ... and the said Dictionary shall be edited and prepared on the
same principles and on the same lines of historical and linguistic evidence as to the
forms and meanings of its words, as are shown in the Specimen page, and shall contain on
its title page "Founded mainly on the materials collected by the Philological Society"?.
This work is referred to in the contract as the ?principal dictionary?, but provision
was made for either party at a later date proceeding to compile and publish ?a larger
dictionary containing not fewer than ten volumes, each containing not less than 1,600
pages of the size of the said Specimen page?. This was, in fact, a pretty close estimate
of the size to which the Dictionary ultimately grew, and as early as November 1881 there
was some anticipation of this growth, when the Delegates agreed to an increase in the
number of pages from 6,400 to 8,400.

There are many other details in the contract which are interesting in themselves, or in
the light of the later fortunes of the Dictionary, but on which it is not necessary to
enlarge. The great facts which it embodied were that the Society had at last found its
publisher, the Delegates had undertaken a task more magnificent than they knew of, and
the Dictionary had found an editor capable of converting its latent possibilities into a
great reality.

During the earlier part of these negotiations, however, Dr Murray had not definitely
contemplated undertaking the editorship of the Dictionary, although he had taken a
leading part in furthering the idea that it was something to be done. It was only when
the necessity for a decision was forced upon him, by his being assured that the fate of
the Dictionary depended on his acceptance, that he reluctantly agreed to assume the
responsibility for a task which was even then formidable enough, though its full weight
was not yet apparent. Several serious questions had to be faced in making this decision.
It would be necessary to do the editing in addition to his work at Mill Hill School,
even if he might be relieved of part of this. The housing of so great a mass of material
could be satisfactorily accomplished only by providing special accommodation for it, and
this and other necessary aids to the work involved at the outset the expenditure of
private means in addition to the provision made by the Delegates. In spite of all these
deterrents, he boldly faced the task, and set about providing the Dictionary with a
home, and making it possible for himself to work at it. By the middle of February (he
told the Society in May 1879) ?I had commenced the erection of an iron building,
detached from my dwelling-house, to serve as a Scriptorium, and to accommodate safely
and conveniently the materials. This has been fitted with blocks of pigeon-holes, 1,029
in number, for the reception of the alphabetically arranged slips, and with writing
desks, reference desks, and other conveniences for the extensive apparatus required. On
Lady Day ... I received from Mr. Furnivall some ton and three-quarters of materials
which had accumulated under his roof as sub-editor after sub-editor fell off in his
labours. With a considerable body of assistants I have been engaged since that date, as
to all appearance I must be for many months to come, in turning out, examining, sorting,
and bestowing these materials.?

By the tenth of May, with a few exceptions, all the material in the hands of the
sub-editors had either been sent in, or satisfactorily accounted for. It had, indeed,
been widely scattered, and not only in Britain; the letter H came back all the way from
Florence. Although so much of it was still in an undigested state, it was soon obvious
that even all this mass was inadequate for the production of a satisfactory Dictionary
on the lines that had been laid down. The material for many words, especially the
commoner words, was obviously defective, and required to be augmented as rapidly as
possible. A fresh appeal was made for voluntary readers, and even in April 1879 a number
had come forward to help. At the end of that month, the Clarendon Press printed a
thousand copies of ?An Appeal to the English-speaking and English-reading public to read
books and make extracts for the Philological Society's New English Dictionary?. This
appeal covers four pages, of which the first two summarize the history of the Dictionary
from 1857 to 1879, the third explains the reading still required, and the fourth
contains the statement ?A thousand readers are wanted, and confidently asked for, to
complete the work as far as possible within the next three years?. To this are added
four pages of book lists, and a set of directions to readers. This appeal, of which
another five hundred copies were issued later, met with a gratifying response, and
enabled the compilation of the Dictionary to be undertaken with confidence in the result.

The arranging of the old material in the Scriptorium, the organizing of the fresh
collecting, and extensive correspondence with readers and sub-editors, were tasks which
at first left but little time for the actual preparation of the Dictionary, or even for
consideration of the many points which had to be settled before a real beginning could
be made. For many of these there was no model which could be followed; they involved
totally new principles in English lexicography, and required both scholarship and
practical judgement to solve them satisfactorily. Coleridge and Furnivall had shown a
sound understanding of what was necessary as a foundation for the Dictionary; to Murray
belongs the credit of giving it, at the outset, a form which proved to be adequate to
the end, standing the test of fifty years without requiring any essential modification
to adapt it to the steady advance of English scholarship or the accession of new
material.

Back to contents 

Copyright © Oxford University Press 2009
