The making of the Oxford English Dictionary was a monumental 50 year task requiring thousands of volunteers. One of the keenest volunteers was a W C Minor who astonished everyone by refusing to come to Oxford to receive his congratulations. In the end, James Murray, the OED's editor, went to Crowthorne in Berkshire to meet him.

The Meaning of Everything is the story behind the making of the first Oxford English Dictionary. In this account of the OED's creation, Winchester introduces a host of characters, from the murderer who contributed from his prison cell to the self-taught draper's son who guided the project towards fruition.

An accepted authority on the evolution of the English language. This work traces the usage of words through 2.4 million quotations from a range of international English language sources. Accompanying each definition is a chronologically arranged group of quotations that trace the usage of words, and show the contexts in which they can be used.

A biography of James Murray, the first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary . It provides an account of his life, along with how the dictionary was written, the personalities of the people working on it and the endless difficulties that nearly led to the whole enterprise being abandoned.

Describes the relationship between Tolkien's creative use of language in his fictional works and his professional work on the Oxford English Dictionary . The main section of this book offers 'word studies', which explore individual words Tolkien used in terms of their origins, development, and significance in his fictional world.

Using evidence from the world's largest language databank, the Oxford English Corpus, Butterfield uncovers fascinating facts about the English language. Where does our vocabulary come from? How is our language really being used? How do word meanings change? This entertaining book has the authoritative answers to key questions about our language.

Explores the pioneering endeavours in both lexicography and lexicology. Making use of archive material, this collection of twelve essays brings a variety of perspectives to bear upon the OED, and the particular problems posed by the attempt to break ground in its formation.

The legendary Oxford English Dictionary (OED) contains over 600,000 words and a staggering 2,500,000 quotations to illuminate the meaning and history of those words. This book provides an account of the OED , from the publication of the first edition in 1928, through to the metamorphosis of the dictionary into a 21st-century electronic medium.

The second in a major series of volumes supplementing the 2nd edition of the Oxford English Dictionary , this book contains 3000 new words and meanings representing a variety of work-in-progress from across the alphabetic range.

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary is an abridgement of the twenty-volume Oxford English Dictionary into just two volumes, providing a comprehensive description of the historical development of English together with superb coverage of the contemporary language.

The second edition of the Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus is the perfect language resource, combining a dictionary and thesaurus text. This means that you only have to reach for one book when you need language help. In this edition the dictionary and thesaurus texts are integrated so that the thesaurus entry for a word follows the dictionary entry directly. This is based on market research into ..

This revised edition of the world-famous Concise Oxford English Dictionary presents the most accurate picture of English today. It has been updated with hundreds of new words, and contains a brand-new browsable centre section featuring fascinating vocabulary as well as an 'English Uncovered' supplement.