Editing Oxford English Dictionary (section)

== History ==
{| class="wikitable collapsible" style="text-align:center; float:right; clear:right; margin-left:1em;"
|-
! colspan="4" | Oxford English Dictionary Publications
|-
! scope="col" | Publication<br />date
! scope="col" | Volume<br />range
! scope="col" | Title
! scope="col" | Volume
|-
|1888||A and B||''A New ED''||Vol. 1
|-
|1893||C||''NED''||Vol. 2
|-
|1897||D and E||''NED''||Vol. 3
|-
|1900||F and G||''NED''||Vol. 4
|-
|1901||H to K||''NED''||Vol. 5
|-
|1908||L to N||''NED''||Vol. 6
|-
|1909||O and P||''NED''||Vol. 7
|-
|1914||Q to Sh||''NED''||Vol. 8
|-
|1919||Si to St||''NED''||Vol. 9/1
|-
|1919||Su to Th||''NED''||Vol. 9/2
|-
|1926||Ti to U||''NED''||Vol. 10/1
|-
|1928||V to Z||''NED''||Vol. 10/2
|-
|1928||All||''NED''||10 vols.
|-
|1933||All||''NED''||Suppl.
|-
|1933||All||''Oxford ED''||13 vols.
|-
|1972||A to G||''OED'' Sup.||Vol. 1
|-
|1976||H to N||''OED'' Sup.||Vol. 2
|-
|1982||O to Sa||''OED'' Sup.||Vol. 3
|-
|1986||Se to Z||''OED'' Sup.||Vol. 4
|-
|1989||All||''OED'' 2nd Ed.||20 vols.
|-
|1993||All||''OED Add. Ser.''||Vols. 1–2
|-
|1997||All||''OED Add. Ser.''||Vol. 3
|}

=== Origins ===
The dictionary began as a [[Philological Society]] project of a small group of intellectuals in London (and unconnected to [[Oxford University]]):<ref name=Winchester1999>{{cite book |title=The Professor and the Madman |url=https://archive.org/details/professormadman00simo |url-access=registration |last=Winchester |first=Simon |year=1999 |publisher=HarperPerennial |location=New York |isbn=978-0-06-083978-9}}</ref>{{rp|103–104, 112}} [[Richard Chenevix Trench]], [[Herbert Coleridge]], and [[Frederick James Furnivall|Frederick Furnivall]], who were dissatisfied with the existing English dictionaries. The society expressed interest in compiling a new dictionary as early as 1844,<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Thoughts on Writing a History of the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' |last=Gilliver |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Gilliver |date=2013 |journal=Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America |doi=10.1353/dic.2013.0011 |volume=34 |pages=175–183 |s2cid=143763718}}</ref> but it was not until June 1857 that they began by forming an "Unregistered Words Committee" to search for words that were unlisted or poorly defined in current dictionaries. In November, Trench's report was not a list of unregistered words; instead, it was the study ''On Some Deficiencies in our English Dictionaries'', which identified seven distinct shortcomings in contemporary dictionaries:<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://archive.org/details/onsomedeficienci00trenrich |title=On Some Deficiencies in Our English Dictionaries |last=Trench |first=Richard Chenevix |author-link=Richard Chenevix Trench |date=1857 |journal=Transactions of the Philological Society |volume=9 |pages=3–8}}</ref>
* Incomplete coverage of obsolete words
* Inconsistent coverage of families of related words
* Incorrect dates for earliest use of words
* History of obsolete senses of words often omitted
* Inadequate distinction among [[synonyms]]
* Insufficient use of good illustrative quotations
* Space wasted on inappropriate or redundant content.

The society ultimately realized that the number of unlisted words would be far more than the number of words in the English dictionaries of the 19th century, and shifted their idea from covering only words that were not already in English dictionaries to a larger project. Trench suggested that a new, truly ''comprehensive'' dictionary was needed. On 7 January 1858, the society formally adopted the idea of a comprehensive new dictionary.<ref name=Winchester1999 />{{rp|107–108}} Volunteer readers would be assigned particular books, copying passages illustrating word usage onto quotation slips. Later the same year, the society agreed to the project in principle, with the title ''A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles'' (''NED'').<ref name=Craigie />{{rp|ix–x}}

=== Early editors ===
{{See also|List of contributors to the Oxford English Dictionary}}
[[Richard Chenevix Trench]] (1807–1886) played the key role in the project's first months, but his appointment as [[List of Deans of Westminster|Dean of Westminster]] meant that he could not give the dictionary project the time that it required. He withdrew and [[Herbert Coleridge]] became the first editor.<ref name=Mugglestone>{{Cite book |title=Lost for Words: The Hidden History of the Oxford English Dictionary |last=Mugglestone |first=Lynda |publisher=Yale University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-300-10699-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/lostforwordshidd00mugg}}</ref>{{Rp|8–9}}

[[File:FrederickJamesFurnivall.jpg|frame|left|[[Frederick James Furnivall|Frederick Furnivall]], 1825–1910]]

On 12 May 1860, Coleridge's dictionary plan was published and research was started. His house was the first editorial office. He arrayed 100,000 quotation slips in a 54 pigeon-hole grid.<ref name=Mugglestone />{{Rp|9}} In April 1861, the group published the first sample pages; later that month, Coleridge died of [[tuberculosis]], aged 30.<ref name=Craigie />{{Rp|x}}

Thereupon Furnivall became editor; he was enthusiastic and knowledgeable, but temperamentally ill-suited for the work.<ref name=Winchester1999 />{{rp|110}} Many volunteer readers eventually lost interest in the project, as Furnivall failed to keep them motivated. Furthermore, many of the slips were misplaced.

Furnivall believed that, since many printed texts from earlier centuries were not readily available, it would be impossible for volunteers to efficiently locate the quotations that the dictionary needed. As a result, he founded the [[Early English Text Society]] in 1864 and the Chaucer Society in 1868 to publish old manuscripts.<ref name=Craigie />{{Rp|xii}} Furnivall's preparatory efforts lasted 21 years and provided numerous texts for the use and enjoyment of the general public, as well as crucial sources for lexicographers, but they did not actually involve compiling a dictionary. Furnivall recruited more than 800 volunteers to read these texts and record quotations. While enthusiastic, the volunteers were not well trained and often made inconsistent and arbitrary selections. Ultimately, Furnivall handed over nearly two tons of quotation slips and other materials to his successor.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.oed.com/page/reading/Reading$0020Programme |title=Reading Programme |access-date=7 June 2014 |website=Oxford English Dictionary Online |archive-date=13 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210613141705/https://www.oed.com/page/reading/Reading$0020Programme}}</ref>

In the 1870s, Furnivall unsuccessfully attempted to recruit both [[Henry Sweet]] and [[Henry Nicol]] to succeed him. He then approached [[James Murray (lexicographer)|James Murray]], who accepted the post of editor. In the late 1870s, Furnivall and Murray met with several publishers about publishing the dictionary. In 1878, Oxford University Press agreed with Murray to proceed with the massive project; the agreement was formalized the following year.<ref name=Winchester1999 />{{rp|111–112}} 20 years after its conception, the dictionary project finally had a publisher. It would take another 50 years to complete.

[[File:Dr. William Chester Minor.jpg|thumb|[[William Chester Minor]], 1834–1920]]
Late in his editorship, Murray learned that one especially prolific reader, [[William Chester Minor|W.&nbsp;C. Minor]], was confined to a mental hospital for (in modern terminology) [[schizophrenia]].<ref name=Winchester1999 />{{rp|xiii}}  Minor was a Yale University–trained surgeon and a military officer in the [[American Civil War]] who had been confined to [[Broadmoor Hospital|Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane]] after killing a man in London. He invented his own quotation-tracking system, allowing him to submit slips on specific words in response to editors' requests. The story of how Murray and Minor worked together to advance the ''OED'' was retold in the 1998 book ''[[The Surgeon of Crowthorne]]'' (US title: ''The Professor and the Madman''<ref name=Winchester1999 />), which was the basis for a 2019 film, ''[[The Professor and the Madman (film)|The Professor and the Madman]]'', starring [[Mel Gibson]] and [[Sean Penn]].

=== Oxford editors ===
[[File:James Murray in a scriptorium.jpg|thumb|[[James Murray (lexicographer)|James Murray]] in the Scriptorium at Banbury Road]]
During the 1870s, the [[Philological Society]] was concerned with the process of publishing a dictionary with such an immense scope.<ref name=Dickson /> They had pages printed by publishers, but no publication agreement was reached; both the [[Cambridge University Press]] and the [[Oxford University Press]] were approached. The OUP finally agreed in 1879 (after two years of negotiating by Sweet, Furnivall, and Murray) to publish the dictionary and to pay Murray, who was both the editor and the [[Philological Society]] president. The dictionary was to be published as interval fascicles, with the final form in four volumes, totalling 6,400 pages. They hoped to finish the project in ten years.<ref name=Mugglestone />{{Rp|1}}

[[File:OED quotation slip.jpg|left|thumb|A quotation slip as used in the compilation of the ''OED,'' illustrating the word ''flood'']]
Murray started the project, working in a [[corrugated iron]] outbuilding called the "[[Scriptorium]]" which was lined with wooden planks, bookshelves, and 1,029 pigeon-holes for the quotation slips.<ref name=Craigie />{{Rp|xiii}} He tracked and regathered Furnivall's collection of quotation slips, which were found to concentrate on rare, interesting words rather than common usages. For instance, there were ten times as many quotations for ''abusion'' as for ''abuse''.<ref name="caught178" /> He appealed, through newspapers distributed to bookshops and libraries, for readers who would report "as many quotations as you can for ordinary words" and for words that were "rare, obsolete, old-fashioned, new, peculiar or used in a peculiar way".<ref name="caught178">{{cite book |last=Murray |first=K. M. Elizabeth |title=Caught in the Web of Words: James Murray and the Oxford English Dictionary |url=https://archive.org/details/caughtinwebofwor00murr |url-access=registration |year=1977 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-08919-6 |page=[https://archive.org/details/caughtinwebofwor00murr/page/178 178]}}</ref> Murray had American philologist and [[liberal arts college]] professor [[Francis March]] manage the collection in North America; 1,000 quotation slips arrived daily to the Scriptorium and, by 1880, there were 2,500,000.<ref name=Mugglestone />{{Rp|15}}

The first dictionary fascicle was published on 1 February 1884—twenty-three years after Coleridge's sample pages. The full title was ''A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles; Founded Mainly on the Materials Collected by The Philological Society''; the 352-page volume, words from ''A'' to ''Ant'', cost 12[[shilling|s]] 6[[Penny (British pre-decimal coin)|d]]<ref name=Mugglestone />{{rp|251}} ({{Inflation|UK|0.625|1884|fmt=eq}}). The total sales were only 4,000 copies.<ref name=Winchester2003>{{cite book |last=Winchester |first=Simon |title=The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary |year=2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-860702-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/meaningofeveryth00winc}}</ref>{{rp|169}}

The OUP saw that it would take too long to complete the work with unrevised editorial arrangements. Accordingly, new assistants were hired and two new demands were made on Murray.<ref name=Mugglestone />{{rp|32–33}} The first was that he move from [[Mill Hill]] to [[Oxford]] to work full-time on the project, which he did in 1885. Murray had his Scriptorium re-erected in the back garden of his new property.<ref name=Craigie />{{Rp|xvii}}

[[File:78 Banbury Road Oxford 20060715.jpg|thumb|left|78 Banbury Road, former home of [[James Murray (lexicographer)|James Murray]], marked with an [[Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board|Oxfordshire Blue Plaque]]]]
Murray resisted the second demand: that if he could not meet schedule, he must hire a second, senior editor to work in parallel to him, outside his supervision, on words from elsewhere in the alphabet. Murray did not want to share the work, feeling that he would accelerate his work pace with experience. That turned out not to be so, and [[Philip Lyttelton Gell|Philip Gell]] of the OUP forced the promotion of Murray's assistant [[Henry Bradley]] (hired by Murray in 1884), who worked independently in the [[British Museum]] in London beginning in 1888. In 1896, Bradley moved to Oxford University.<ref name=Mugglestone />

Gell continued harassing Murray and Bradley with his business concerns – containing costs and speeding production – to the point where the project's collapse seemed likely. Newspapers reported the harassment, particularly the ''[[Saturday Review (London)|Saturday Review]]'', and public opinion backed the editors.<ref name=Winchester2003 />{{rp|182–83}} Gell was fired, and the university reversed his cost policies. If the editors felt that the dictionary would have to grow larger, it would; it was an important work, and worth the time and money to properly finish.

Neither Murray nor Bradley lived to see it. Murray died in 1915, having been responsible for words starting with ''A–D'', ''H–K'', ''O–P'', and ''T'', nearly half the finished dictionary; Bradley died in 1923, having completed ''E–G'', ''L–M'', ''S–Sh'', ''St'', and ''W–We''. By then, two additional editors had been promoted from assistant work to independent work, continuing without much trouble. [[William Craigie]] started in 1901 and was responsible for ''N'', ''Q–R'', ''Si–Sq'', ''U–V'', and ''Wo–Wy''.<ref name=Craigie />{{Rp|xix}} The OUP had previously thought London too far from Oxford but, after 1925, Craigie worked on the dictionary in Chicago, where he was a professor.<ref name=Craigie />{{rp|xix}}<ref name=Mugglestone /> The fourth editor was [[Charles Talbut Onions]], who compiled the remaining ranges starting in 1914: ''Su–Sz'', ''Wh–Wo'', and ''X–Z''.<ref name=Lex-LMugg>{{cite book |last=Mugglestone |first=Lynda |title=Lexicography and the OED: Pioneers in the Untrodden Forest |year=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=245}}</ref>

In 1919–1920, [[J. R. R. Tolkien]] was employed by the ''OED'', researching etymologies of the ''Waggle'' to ''Warlock'' range;<ref>{{cite web |url=http://public.oed.com/history-of-the-oed/contributors/#tolkien |title=Contributors: Tolkien |access-date=3 October 2012 |website=Oxford English Dictionary Online |archive-date=4 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160504010833/http://public.oed.com/history-of-the-oed/contributors/#tolkien}}</ref> later he parodied the principal editors as "The Four Wise Clerks of Oxenford" in the story ''[[Farmer Giles of Ham]]''.<ref name=Considine>{{Cite journal |url=http://www.euralex.org/elx_proceedings/Euralex1998_2/John%20CONSIDINE%20Why%20do%20large%20historical%20dictionaries%20give%20so%20much%20pleasure%20to%20their%20owners%20and%20users.pdf |title=Why do large historical dictionaries give so much pleasure to their owners and users? |last=Considine |first=John |date=1998 |journal=Proceedings of the 8th EURALEX International Congress |access-date=8 June 2014 |pages=579–587 |archive-date=13 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140713043602/http://www.euralex.org/elx_proceedings/Euralex1998_2/John%20CONSIDINE%20Why%20do%20large%20historical%20dictionaries%20give%20so%20much%20pleasure%20to%20their%20owners%20and%20users.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>

By early 1894, a total of 11 fascicles had been published, or about one per year: four for ''A–B'', five for ''C'', and two for ''E''.<ref name=Craigie /> Of these, eight were 352 pages long, while the last one in each group was shorter to end at the letter break (which eventually became a volume break). At this point, it was decided to publish the work in smaller and more frequent instalments; once every three months beginning in 1895 there would be a fascicle of 64 pages, priced at 2s 6d. If enough material was ready, 128 or even 192 pages would be published together. This pace was maintained until World War I forced reductions in staff.<ref name=Craigie />{{rp|xx}} Each time enough consecutive pages were available, the same material was also published in the original larger fascicles.<ref name=Craigie />{{rp|xx}} Also in 1895, the title ''Oxford English Dictionary'' was first used. It then appeared only on the outer covers of the fascicles; the original title was still the official one and was used everywhere else.<ref name=Craigie />{{Rp|xx}}

=== Completion of first edition and first supplement ===
The 125th and last fascicle covered words from ''Wise'' to the end of ''W'' and was published on 19 April 1928, and the full dictionary in bound volumes followed immediately.<ref name=Craigie>{{Cite book |title=A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles: Introduction, Supplement, and Bibliography |last1=Craigie |first1=W. A. |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1933 |location=Oxford |last2=Onions |first2=C.&nbsp;T.}}</ref>{{rp|xx}} [[William Shakespeare]] is the most-quoted writer in the completed dictionary, with ''[[Hamlet]]'' his most-quoted work. [[George Eliot]] (Mary Ann Evans) is the most-quoted female writer. Collectively, the [[Bible]] is the most-quoted work (in many translations); the most-quoted single work is ''[[Cursor Mundi]]''.<ref name=facts2004>{{Cite web |url=http://public.oed.com/history-of-the-oed/dictionary-facts/ |title=Dictionary Facts |access-date=1 June 2014 |website=Oxford English Dictionary Online |archive-date=6 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140706184512/http://public.oed.com/history-of-the-oed/dictionary-facts/}}</ref>

Additional material for a given letter range continued to be gathered after the corresponding fascicle was printed, with a view towards inclusion in a supplement or revised edition. A one-volume supplement of such material was published in 1933, with entries weighted towards the start of the alphabet where the fascicles were decades old.<ref name= Craigie /> The supplement included at least one word (''bondmaid'') accidentally omitted when its slips were misplaced;<ref>Gilliver p. 199; Mugglestone p. 100</ref> many words and senses newly coined (famously ''[[appendicitis]]'', coined in 1886 and missing from the 1885 fascicle, which came to prominence when [[Edward VII]]'s 1902 appendicitis postponed [[Coronation of Edward VII and Alexandra|his coronation]]<ref>Gilliver pp. 289–290; Mugglestone p. 164</ref>); and some previously excluded as too obscure (notoriously ''[[radium]]'', omitted in 1903, months before its discoverers [[Pierre Curie|Pierre]] and [[Marie Curie]] won the [[Nobel Prize in Physics]]<ref>Gilliver pp. 302–303; Mugglestone p. 161</ref>). Also in 1933 the original fascicles of the entire dictionary were re-issued, bound into 12 volumes, under the title "''The Oxford English Dictionary''".<ref name=33reissue>{{cite book |date=1933 |editor1-last=Murray |editor1-first=James A. H. |editor-link1=James Murray (lexicographer) |editor2-last=Bradley |editor2-first=Henry |editor-link2=Henry Bradley |editor3-last=Craigie |editor3-first=W. A. |editor-link3=William Craigie |editor4-last=Onions |editor4-first=C. T. |editor-link4=Charles Talbut Onions |title=The Oxford English Dictionary; being a corrected re-issue with an introduction, supplement and bibliography of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.147252 |edition=1st |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=0-19-861101-3 |lccn=a33003399 |oclc=2748467 |ol=OL180268M}}</ref> This edition of 13 volumes including the supplement was subsequently reprinted in 1961 and 1970.

=== Second supplement ===
In 1933, Oxford had finally put the dictionary to rest; all work ended, and the quotation slips went into storage. However, the English language continued to change and, by the time 20 years had passed, the dictionary was outdated.<ref name=Supplement1957-1986 />

There were three possible ways to update it. The cheapest would have been to leave the existing work alone and simply compile a new supplement of perhaps one or two volumes, but then anyone looking for a word or sense and unsure of its age would have to look in three different places. The most convenient choice for the user would have been for the entire dictionary to be re-edited and [[typesetting|retypeset]], with each change included in its proper alphabetical place; but this would have been the most expensive option, with perhaps 15 volumes required to be produced. The OUP chose a middle approach: combining the new material with the existing supplement to form a larger replacement supplement.

[[Robert Burchfield]] was hired in 1957 to edit the second supplement;<ref>{{Cite journal |title=The Revolution in English Lexicography |last=Simpson |first=John |date=2002 |journal=Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America |doi=10.1353/dic.2002.0004 |volume=23 |pages=1–15 |s2cid=162931774}}</ref> [[Charles Talbut Onions]] turned 84 that year but was still able to make some contributions as well. The work on the supplement was expected to take about seven years.<ref name=Supplement1957-1986>{{Cite web |url=http://www.oed.com/archive/oed2-preface/hist-supp-oed.html |title=Preface to the Second Edition: The history of the Oxford English Dictionary: A Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary, 1957–1986 |date=1989 |access-date=16 May 2008 |website=Oxford English Dictionary Online |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516195349/http://www.oed.com/archive/oed2-preface/hist-supp-oed.html |archive-date=16 May 2008}}</ref> It actually took 29 years, by which time the new supplement ''(OEDS)'' had grown to four volumes, starting with ''A'', ''H'', ''O'', and ''Sea''. They were published in 1972, 1976, 1982, and 1986 respectively, bringing the complete dictionary to 16 volumes, or 17 counting the first supplement.

Burchfield emphasized the inclusion of modern-day language and, through the supplement, the dictionary was expanded to include a wealth of new words from the burgeoning fields of science and technology, as well as popular culture and colloquial speech. Burchfield said that he broadened the scope to include developments of the language in [[English-speaking world|English-speaking regions beyond the United Kingdom]], including North America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, and the Caribbean. Burchfield also removed, for unknown reasons, many entries that had been added to the 1933 supplement.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2012/nov/30/oed-history-reports-missing-point |title=Focusing on the OED's missing words is missing the point |last=Ogilvie |first=Sarah |date=30 November 2012 |work=The Guardian |access-date=2 October 2014}}</ref> In 2012, an analysis by lexicographer Sarah Ogilvie revealed that many of these entries were in fact foreign loanwords, despite Burchfield's claim that he included more such words. The proportion was estimated from a sample calculation to amount to 17% of the foreign [[loan word]]s and words from regional forms of English. Some of these had only a single recorded usage, but many had multiple recorded citations, and it ran against what was thought to be the established ''OED'' editorial practice and a perception that he had opened up the dictionary to "World English".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ogilvie |first=Sarah |url=https://archive.org/details/wordsofworldglob0000ogil/mode/2up |title=Words of the World: A Global History of the Oxford English Dictionary |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-107-02183-9 |access-date=28 April 2024 |url-access=registration |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/29/books/sarah-ogilvie-on-deletions-from-the-oxford-english-dictionary.html |title=Dictionary Dust-Up (Danchi Is Involved) |last=Kaufman |first=Leslie |date=28 November 2012 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=8 June 2014 |archive-date=10 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140310180612/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/29/books/sarah-ogilvie-on-deletions-from-the-oxford-english-dictionary.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/nov/26/former-oed-editor-deleted-words |title=Former OED editor covertly deleted thousands of words, book claims |last=Flood |first=Alison |date=26 November 2012 |work=The Guardian |access-date=8 June 2014 |archive-date=2 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240602225457/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/nov/26/former-oed-editor-deleted-words |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Second edition ===
{{Infobox book|
| name              = Oxford English Dictionary|
| image             = Oxford English Dictionary 2nd.jpg|
| caption           = Second Edition|
| editor            = [[John Simpson (lexicographer)|John Simpson]] and [[Edmund Weiner]]|
| illustrator       = |
| cover_artist      = |
| country           = United Kingdom|
| language          = English|
| series            = |
| subject           = [[List of English dictionaries|Dictionary]]|
| publisher         = [[Oxford University Press]]|
| pub_date          = 30 March 1989|
| media_type        = |
| pages             = 21,730<ref name=facts2004 />|
| isbn              = 978-0-19-861186-8
| dewey             = 423 19
| congress          = PE1625 .O87 1989
| oclc              = 17648714
}}

By the time the new supplement was completed, it was clear that the full text of the dictionary would need to be computerized. Achieving this would require retyping it once, but thereafter it would always be accessible for computer searching—as well as for whatever new editions of the dictionary might be desired, starting with an integration of the supplementary volumes and the main text. Preparation for this process began in 1983, and editorial work started the following year under the administrative direction of Timothy J. Benbow, with [[John Simpson (lexicographer)|John A. Simpson]] and [[Edmund Weiner|Edmund S. C. Weiner]] as co-editors.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |url=http://www.oed.com/archive/oed2-preface/hist-new-oed.html |title=Preface to the Second Edition: The history of the Oxford English Dictionary: The New Oxford English Dictionary project |date=1989 |access-date=16 May 2008 |website=Oxford English Dictionary Online |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516195137/http://www.oed.com/archive/oed2-preface/hist-new-oed.html |archive-date=16 May 2008}}</ref> In 2016, Simpson published his memoir chronicling his years at the OED: ''The Word Detective: Searching for the Meaning of It All at the Oxford English Dictionary – A Memoir'' (New York: Basic Books).

[[File:OED-LEXX-Bungler.jpg|right|framed|Editing an entry of the ''NOED'' using [[LEXX (text editor)|LEXX]]]]
[[File:OED markup corrections.jpg|left|thumb|A printout of the SGML markup used in the computerization of the ''OED'', showing pencil annotations used to mark corrections]]
Thus began the ''New Oxford English Dictionary (NOED)'' project. In the United States, more than 120 typists of the International Computaprint Corporation (now [[Reed Tech]]) started keying in over 350,000,000 characters, their work checked by 55 proof-readers in England.<ref name=":5" /> Retyping the text alone was not sufficient; all the information represented by the complex [[typography]] of the original dictionary had to be retained, which was done by [[markup (computer programming)|marking up]] the content in [[SGML]].<ref name=":5" /> A specialized [[Search engine (computing)|search engine]] and display software were also needed to access it. Under a 1985 agreement, some of this software work was done at the [[University of Waterloo]], Canada, at the ''Centre for the New Oxford English Dictionary'', led by [[Frank Tompa]] and [[Gaston Gonnet]]; this search technology went on to become the basis for the [[Open Text Corporation]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://db.uwaterloo.ca/OED/ |title=UW Centre for the New OED and Text Research |date=10 November 2005 |access-date=4 June 2014 |last=Tompa |first=Frank |author-link=Frank Tompa |archive-date=12 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140912011713/http://db.uwaterloo.ca/OED/}}</ref> Computer hardware, database and other software, development managers, and programmers for the project were donated by the British subsidiary of [[IBM]]; the colour syntax-directed editor for the project, [[LEXX (text editor)|LEXX]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://domino.research.ibm.com/tchjr/journalindex.nsf/0/bc33186c36e05a9e85256bfa0067f698?OpenDocument |title=LEXX |access-date=3 July 2004 |archive-date=12 February 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060212114851/http://domino.research.ibm.com/tchjr/journalindex.nsf/0/bc33186c36e05a9e85256bfa0067f698?OpenDocument}}{{subscription required}}</ref> was written by [[Mike Cowlishaw]] of IBM.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=LEXX – A Programmable Structured Editor |last=Cowlishaw |first=Mike F. |author-link=Mike Cowlishaw |date=1987 |journal=IBM Journal of Research and Development |doi=10.1147/rd.311.0073 |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=73–80 |s2cid=207600673 |url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f337/6dc837706144926d864c4faa40d522a3c074.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200228090750/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f337/6dc837706144926d864c4faa40d522a3c074.pdf |archive-date=28 February 2020}}</ref> The [[University of Waterloo]], in Canada, volunteered to design the database. [[A. Walton Litz]], an English professor at [[Princeton University]] who served on the Oxford University Press advisory council, was quoted in [[Time (magazine)|''Time'']] as saying "I've never been associated with a project, I've never even heard of a project, that was so incredibly complicated and that met every deadline."<ref name="Gray1989-3-27">{{Cite magazine |url=https://content.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,957301,00.html |title=A Scholarly Everest Gets Bigger |last=Gray |first=Paul |date=27 March 1989 |magazine=Time |access-date=7 June 2014 |archive-date=3 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150503012629/http://content.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,957301,00.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

By 1989, the ''NOED'' project had achieved its primary goals, and the editors, working online, had successfully combined the original text, Burchfield's supplement, and a small amount of newer material, into a single unified dictionary. The word "new" was again dropped from the name, and the second edition of the ''OED'', or the ''OED2'', was published. The first edition [[retronym]]ically became the ''OED1''.

The ''Oxford English Dictionary 2'' was printed in 20 volumes.<ref name=Dickson /> Up to a very late stage, all the volumes of the first edition were started on letter boundaries. For the second edition, there was no attempt to start them on letter boundaries, and they were made roughly equal in size. The 20 volumes started with ''A'', ''B.B.C.'', ''Cham'', ''Creel'', ''Dvandva'', ''Follow'', ''Hat'', ''Interval'', ''Look'', ''Moul'', ''Ow'', ''Poise'', ''Quemadero'', ''Rob'', ''Ser'', ''Soot'', ''Su'', ''Thru'', ''Unemancipated'', and ''Wave''.

The content of the ''OED2'' is mostly just a reorganization of the earlier corpus, but the retypesetting provided an opportunity for two long-needed format changes. The [[headword]] of each entry was no longer capitalized, allowing the user to readily see those words that actually require a capital letter.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |url=http://www.oed.com/archive/oed2-preface/intro-features.html |title=Preface to the Second Edition: Introduction: Special features of the Second Edition |date=1989 |access-date=16 May 2008 |website=Oxford English Dictionary Online |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516195244/http://www.oed.com/archive/oed2-preface/intro-features.html |archive-date=16 May 2008}}</ref> Murray had devised his own notation for pronunciation, there being no standard available at the time, whereas the ''OED2'' adopted the modern [[International Phonetic Alphabet]].<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.oed.com/archive/oed2-preface/intro-phonetic.html |title=Preface to the Second Edition: Introduction: The translation of the phonetic system |date=1989 |access-date=16 May 2008 |website=Oxford English Dictionary Online |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516195327/http://www.oed.com/archive/oed2-preface/intro-phonetic.html |archive-date=16 May 2008}}</ref> Unlike the earlier edition, all foreign alphabets except Greek were [[Transliteration|transliterated]].<ref name=":1" />

Following page 832 of Volume XX ''Wave-Zyxt'' there's a 143-page separately paginated bibliography, a conflation of the OED 1st edition's published with the 1933 Supplement and that in Volume IV of the Supplement published in 1986.<ref>{{Cite book |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/OXD1989ENEN/20-%20Oxford%20English%20Dictionary%20%281989%29/page/n843/mode/2up |title=The Oxford English Dictionary Volume XX Wave-—Zyx |publisher=[[Clarendon Press]] |year=1989 |isbn=0-19-861232-X |editor-last=Simpson |editor-first=J. A. |editor-link=John Simpson (lexicographer) |publication-place=Oxford |page=[3 of Bibliography's pagination] |chapter=Note to the Bibliography |access-date=7 April 2024 |editor-last2=Weiner |editor-first2=E.S.C. |editor-link2=Edmund Weiner |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref>

The British quiz show ''[[Countdown (game show)|Countdown]]'' awarded the leather-bound complete version to the [[List of Countdown champions|champions of each series]] between its inception in 1982 and Series 63 in 2010.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Countdown |title=Countdown |access-date=2 June 2014 |website=UKGameshows |archive-date=16 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116000720/http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Countdown |url-status=live}}</ref> The prize was axed after Series 83, completed in June 2021, due to being considered out of date.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://wiki.apterous.org/Series_83 |title=Series 83 |access-date=25 June 2021 |website=The Countdown Wiki |archive-date=24 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624111026/https://wiki.apterous.org/Series_83 |url-status=live}}</ref>

When the print version of the second edition was published in 1989, the response was enthusiastic. Author [[Anthony Burgess]] declared it "the greatest publishing event of the century", as quoted by the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''.<ref>{{cite news |last=Fisher |first=Dan |title=20-Volume English set costs $2,500; New Oxford Dictionary – Improving on the ultimate |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=25 March 1989 |quote=Here's novelist Anthony Burgess calling it 'the greatest publishing event of the century'. It is to be marked by a half-day seminar and lunch at that bluest of blue-blood London hostelries, Claridge's. The guest list of 250 dignitaries is a literary 'Who's Who'.}}</ref> ''Time'' dubbed the book "a scholarly [[Everest]]",<ref name=Gray1989-3-27 /> and [[Richard Boston]], writing for ''[[The Guardian]]'', called it "one of the [[wonders of the world]]".<ref>{{cite news |last=Boston |first=Richard |title=The new, 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary: Oxford's A to Z – The origin |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |date=24 March 1989 |author-link=Richard Boston |quote=The ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' and the ''Dictionary of National Biography'' are indeed yet mighty, but not quite what they used to be, whereas the OED has gone from strength to strength and is one of the wonders of the world.}}</ref>

=== Additions series ===
The supplements and their integration into the second edition were a great improvement to the ''OED'' as a whole, but it was recognized that most of the entries were still fundamentally unaltered from the first edition. Much of the information in the dictionary published in 1989 was already decades out of date, though the supplements had made good progress towards incorporating new vocabulary. Yet many definitions contained disproven scientific theories, outdated historical information, and moral values that were no longer widely accepted.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |url=http://oed.com/archive/oed2-preface/hist-new-oed-3.html |title=Preface to the Second Edition: The history of the Oxford English Dictionary: The New Oxford English Dictionary project |date=1989 |access-date=16 December 2003 |website=Oxford English Dictionary Online |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031216002745/http://oed.com/archive/oed2-preface/hist-new-oed-3.html |archive-date=16 December 2003}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://oed.hertford.ox.ac.uk/main/content/view/28/159/index.html |title=Which edition contains what? |date=28 December 2011 |access-date=7 June 2014 |website=Examining the OED |last=Brewer |first=Charlotte |author-link=Charlotte Brewer |archive-date=28 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140428032907/http://oed.hertford.ox.ac.uk/main/content/view/28/159/index.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Furthermore, the supplements had failed to recognize many words in the existing volumes as obsolete by the time of the second edition's publication, meaning that thousands of words were marked as current despite no recent evidence of their use.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://oed.hertford.ox.ac.uk/main/content/view/29/160/index.html |title=Review of OED3 |date=28 December 2011 |access-date=7 June 2014 |website=Examining the OED |last=Brewer |first=Charlotte |author-link=Charlotte Brewer |archive-date=28 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140428063559/http://oed.hertford.ox.ac.uk/main/content/view/29/160/index.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

Accordingly, it was recognized that work on a third edition would have to begin to rectify these problems.<ref name=":3" /> The first attempt to produce a new edition came with the ''Oxford English Dictionary Additions Series,'' a new set of supplements to complement the ''OED2'' with the intention of producing a third edition from them.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |url=http://www.oed.com/archive/additions-1/introduction.html |title=Preface to the Additions Series (vol. 1): Introduction |date=1993 |access-date=16 May 2008 |website=Oxford English Dictionary Online |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516214647/http://www.oed.com/archive/additions-1/introduction.html |archive-date=16 May 2008}}</ref> The previous supplements appeared in alphabetical instalments, whereas the new series had a full A–Z range of entries within each individual volume, with a complete alphabetical index at the end of all words revised so far, each listed with the volume number which contained the revised entry.<ref name=":4" />

However, in the end only three ''Additions'' volumes were published this way, two in 1993 and one in 1997,<ref>{{Cite book |title=Oxford English Dictionary Additions Series |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-19-861292-6 |location=Oxford |volume=1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Oxford English Dictionary Additions Series |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-19-861299-5 |location=Oxford |volume=2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Oxford English Dictionary Additions Series |publisher=Clarendon Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-19-860027-5 |location=Oxford |volume=3}}</ref> each containing about 3,000 new definitions.<ref name=facts2004 /> The possibilities of the [[World Wide Web]] and new computer technology in general meant that the processes of researching the dictionary and of publishing new and revised entries could be vastly improved. New text search databases offered vastly more material for the editors of the dictionary to work with, and with publication on the Web as a possibility, the editors could publish revised entries much more quickly and easily than ever before.<ref name=Simpson2011>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVVJmnSJrDc |title=The Making of the OED, 3rd ed. |date=31 January 2011 |access-date=7 June 2014 |last=Simpson |first=John |website=[[YouTube]] |type=video |archive-date=15 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150515030754/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVVJmnSJrDc |url-status=live}}</ref> A new approach was called for, and for this reason it was decided to embark on a new, complete revision of the dictionary.
* ''Oxford English Dictionary Additions Series'' Volume 1 ({{ISBN|978-0-19-861292-6}}): Includes over 20,000 illustrative quotations showing the evolution of each word or meaning.
:*?th impression (1994-02-10)
* ''Oxford English Dictionary Additions Series'' Volume 2 ({{ISBN|978-0-19-861299-5}})
:*?th impression (1994-02-10)
* ''Oxford English Dictionary Additions Series'' Volume 3 ({{ISBN|978-0-19-860027-5}}): Contains 3,000 new words and meanings from around the English-speaking world. Published by Clarendon Press.
:*?th impression (1997-10-09)

=== Third edition ===
Beginning with the launch of the first ''OED Online'' site in 2000, the editors of the dictionary began a major revision project to create a completely revised third edition of the dictionary (''OED3''), expected to be completed in 2037<ref name='deadline2037'>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] |title=Deadline 2037: The Making of the Next Oxford English Dictionary |date=27 January 2014 |access-date=27 August 2019 |last=Rachman |first=Tom |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/deadline-2037-the-making-of-the-next-oxford-english-dictionary-1.1667328 |archive-date=18 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200318050317/https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/deadline-2037-the-making-of-the-next-oxford-english-dictionary-1.1667328 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://cogscilibrarian.blogspot.com/2007/08/from-unregistered-words-to-oed3.html |title=From Unregistered Words to OED3 |date=26 August 2007 |access-date=23 October 2007 |work=CogSci Librarian |via=BlogSpot |last=Willen Brown |first=Stephanie |archive-date=10 October 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071010030822/http://cogscilibrarian.blogspot.com/2007/08/from-unregistered-words-to-oed3.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite podcast |title=History of the Oxford English Dictionary |date=27 May 2007 |publisher=[[Big Ideas (TV series)|Big Ideas]] |work=[[TVOntario]] |host=[[Simon Winchester|Winchester, Simon]] |url=http://www.tvo.org/podcasts/bi/audio/BISimonWinchester052707.mp3 |format=[[MP3]] |access-date=1 December 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080216045839/http://www.tvo.org/podcasts/bi/audio/BISimonWinchester052707.mp3 |archive-date=16 February 2008 }}</ref> at a projected cost of about [[Pounds sterling|£]]34 million.<ref name="OED_History">{{Cite web |url=https://www.oed.com/information/about-the-oed/history-of-the-oed/ |url-status=live |title=History of the OED |access-date=7 March 2024 |website=Oxford English Dictionary |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140706194110/http://public.oed.com/history-of-the-oed/ |archive-date=6 July 2014}}{{void|Fabrickator|comment|link to the updated version of the OED website while leaving in the archive links to the old website in case pertinent content is omitted from the live site}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name="Dickson" />

Revisions were started at the letter ''M'', with new material appearing every three months on the ''OED Online'' website. The editors chose to start the revision project from the middle of the dictionary in order that the overall quality of entries be made more even, since the later entries in the ''OED1'' generally tended to be better than the earlier ones. However, in March 2008, the editors announced that they would alternate each quarter between moving forward in the alphabet as before and updating "key English words from across the alphabet, along with the other words which make up the alphabetical cluster surrounding them".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://public.oed.com/the-oed-today/recent-updates-to-the-oed/previous-updates/march-2008-update/ |title=March 2008 Update |access-date=1 June 2014 |work=Oxford English Dictionary Online |archive-date=20 November 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081120000310/http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50090566}}</ref> With the relaunch of the ''OED Online'' website in December 2010, alphabetical revision was abandoned altogether.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://oed.hertford.ox.ac.uk/main/content/view/429/158/index.html |title=OED Online and OED3 |date=12 February 2012 |access-date=7 June 2014 |work=Examining the OED |publisher=Hertford College, University of Oxford |last=Brewer |first=Charlotte |author-link=Charlotte Brewer |archive-date=15 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140715020601/http://oed.hertford.ox.ac.uk/main/content/view/429/158/index.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

The revision is expected roughly to double the dictionary in size.<ref name="Simpson" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |url=http://public.oed.com/the-oed-today/preface-to-the-third-edition-of-the-oed/ |title=Preface to the Third Edition of the OED |date=March 2000 |access-date=1 June 2014 |work=Oxford English Dictionary Online |last=Simpson |first=John |archive-date=6 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140706205358/http://public.oed.com/the-oed-today/preface-to-the-third-edition-of-the-oed/}}</ref> Apart from general updates to include information on new words and other changes in the language, the third edition brings many other improvements, including changes in formatting and stylistic conventions for easier reading and computerized searching, more etymological information, and a general change of focus away from individual words towards more general coverage of the language as a whole.<ref name=Simpson2011 /><ref>{{Cite journal |title=Root and Branch: Revising the Etymological Component of the Oxford English Dictionary |last=Durkin |first=Philip N. R. |date=1999 |journal=Transactions of the Philological Society |doi=10.1111/1467-968X.00044 |volume=97 |issue=1 |pages=1–49 |doi-access=}}</ref> While the original text drew its quotations mainly from literary sources such as novels, plays, and poetry, with additional material from newspapers and academic journals, the new edition will reference more kinds of material that were unavailable to the editors of previous editions, such as wills, inventories, account books, diaries, journals, and letters.<ref name=":2" />

[[John Simpson (lexicographer)|John Simpson]] was the first chief editor of the ''OED3''. He retired in 2013 and was replaced by [[Michael Proffitt]], who is the eighth chief editor of the dictionary.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://public.oed.com/oed-editor-retirement-announcement/ |title=John Simpson, Chief Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, to Retire |date=23 April 2013 |access-date=7 June 2014 |work=Oxford English Dictionary Online |archive-date=13 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171013210659/http://public.oed.com/oed-editor-retirement-announcement/}}</ref>

The production of the new edition exploits computer technology, particularly since the inauguration in June 2005 of the "Perfect [[all singing, all dancing (idiom)|All-Singing All-Dancing]] [[text editor|Editorial]] and [[annotation|Notation]] [[application software|Application]]", or "Pasadena". With this [[XML]]-based system, lexicographers can spend less effort on presentation issues such as the numbering of definitions. This system has also simplified the use of the quotations database, and enabled staff in New York to work directly on the dictionary in the same way as their Oxford-based counterparts.<ref>{{cite news |last=Thompson |first=Liz |title=Pasadena: A Brand New System for the ''OED'' |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/186412378/336536-Oxford-English-Dictionary-News-2005-12 |work=Oxford English Dictionary News |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=4 |date=December 2005 |access-date=6 January 2014 |archive-date=6 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140106151050/http://www.scribd.com/doc/186412378/336536-Oxford-English-Dictionary-News-2005-12 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Other important computer uses include internet searches for evidence of current usage and email submissions of quotations by readers and the general public.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://public.oed.com/the-oed-today/rewriting-the-oed/collecting-the-evidence/ |title=Collecting the Evidence |access-date=8 June 2014 |work=Oxford English Dictionary Online |archive-date=21 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140521234730/http://public.oed.com/the-oed-today/rewriting-the-oed/collecting-the-evidence/}}</ref>

==== New entries and words ====
''Wordhunt'' was a 2005 appeal to the general public for help in providing citations for 50 selected recent words, and produced [[antedating (lexicography)|antedatings]] for many. The results were reported in a BBC TV series, ''[[Balderdash and Piffle]]''. The ''OED''{{'}}s readers contribute quotations: the department currently receives about 200,000 a year.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://public.oed.com/history-of-the-oed/reading-programme/ |title=Reading Programme |access-date=8 June 2014 |work=Oxford English Dictionary Online |archive-date=6 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140706192833/http://public.oed.com/history-of-the-oed/reading-programme/}}</ref>

''OED'' currently contains over 500,000 entries.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About |url=https://public.oed.com/about/ |access-date=9 June 2020 |work=Oxford English Dictionary Online |archive-date=21 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190821000818/https://public.oed.com/about/ |url-status=live}}</ref> The online ''OED'' is updated on a quarterly basis, with the addition of new words and senses, and the revision of existing entries.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.oed.com/information/updates/ |title=Updates |work=Oxford English Dictionary |access-date=12 August 2024}}</ref>