Lost for Words : The Hidden History of the Oxford English Dictionary

by Lynda Mugglestone

• ISBN13: 9780300106992
• ISBN10: 0300106998
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2005-05-10
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

TheOxford English Dictionary (OED)holds a cherished position in English literary culture. The story behind the creation of what is indisputably the greatest dictionary in the language has become a popular fascination. This book looks at the history of the great first edition of 1928, and at the men (and occasionally women) who distilled words and usages from centuries of English writing and "through an act of intellectual alchemy captured the spirit of a civilization." The task of the dictionary was to bear full and impartial witness to the language it recorded. But behind the immaculate typography of the finished text, the proofs tell a very different story. This vast archive, unexamined until now, reveals the arguments and controversies over meanings, definitions, and pronunciation, and which words and senses were acceptableand which were not. Lost for Wordsexaminesthe hidden history by which the great dictionary came into being, tracingthrough letters and archivesthe personal battles involved in charting a constantly changing language. Then as now, lexicographers reveal themselves vulnerable to the prejudices of their own linguistic preferences and to the influence of contemporary social history.

Author Biography

Lynda Mugglestone is a Fellow in English Language at Pembroke College, Oxford, and News International Lecturer in Language and Communication at the University of Oxford.

Table of Contents

The ideal dictionary	p. 1
Palimpsests	p. 37
Lost words	p. 70
Science and the principles of selection	p. 110
'I am not the editor of the English language'	p. 143
Ended but not complete	p. 179
Into the future	p. 209
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