History of the Oxford English Dictionary

Began with the speech at the London Library by Richard Chenevix on Guy Fawkes Day, 1857 (103) Two-part lecture on the subject of dictionaries (79) "an inventory of the language"; not a guide to proper usage (104) The history of meaning, the life story of each word reading of everything and the quoting of everything that showed anything of the history of the words that were to be cited; recruited a team of unpaid amateurs, as volunteers (106) January 7, 1858 is normally reckoned the starting point, at least on paper (108) completed in 1928 (25) Making of Oxford English Dictionary Rigorous dependence on gathering quotations from published or otherwise recorded uses of English and using them to illustrate the use of the sense of every single word in the language (25) Quotations could show exactly how a word has been employed over the centuries, how it has undergone subtle changes of shades of meaning, or spelling, or pronunciation; and perhaps most important off all, how and mor...