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

Ogilvie, Sarah, author

[London] : Vintage, 2024.

xii, 368 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 20 cm

Originally published: London: Chatto & Windus, 2023.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

What do three murderers, Karl Marx's daughter and a vegetarian vicar have in common? They all helped create the 'Oxford English Dictionary'. The 'Oxford English Dictionary' has long been associated with elite institutions and Victorian men; its longest-serving editor, James Murray, devoted 36 years to the project, as far as the letter T. But the Dictionary didn't just belong to the experts; it relied on contributions from members of the public. By the time it was finished in 1928 its 414,825 entries had been crowdsourced from a surprising and diverse group of people, from archaeologists and astronomers to murderers, naturists, novelists, pornographers, queer couples, suffragists, vicars, and vegetarians. Lexicographer Sarah Ogilvie dives deep into previously untapped archives to tell a people's history of the OED.

9781529922578 (pbk)

423.0922

PE1617.O94

423.0922

English

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