Preface to the Third Edition

General

The Oxford English Dictionary has been the principal dictionary of record for the English language throughout the lifetime of all current users of the language. The first fascicle or instalment of the Dictionary was published by the Oxford University Press in 1884, and publication continued regularly until the whole text of the First Edition was completed in 1928. After that, two supplements (mainly of nineteenth- and twentieth-century neologisms) were produced, and these were largely incorporated into the Second (unrevised) Edition of 1989. The Dictionary has come to be regarded as authoritative, and in order to maintain its pre-eminence the Delegates of the Oxford University Press decided in 1990 to authorize a comprehensive editorial programme of revision and updating, the preliminary results of which are published here for the first time.

The purpose of the current editorial work on the Dictionary is to produce a completely revised and updated text. A preliminary statement of intent may be found on p. lv of the first volume of the Second Edition (The Future of the OED). Each entry already published is being comprehensively reviewed in the light of new documentary evidence and modern developments in scholarship, and further entries are being added both to fill gaps in the historical record and to record changes in the language today.