December 2005 Newsletter

Entries in the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contain the same components as those in the first edition. In both they are made up of headwords, parts of speech, variant spellings, etymologies, definitions, and illustrative quotation paragraphs, and give the earliest available evidence for each sense. Thus, the essence of the lexicographer's work in creating these entries has remained the same over the years. There is a striking contrast, however, between the circumstances in which James Murray and the other early editors prepared entries for publication, and those in which the current OED editors work. Instead of the small corrugated-iron 'scriptorium' in Murray's garden, the OED now occupies a large office in the main building of the Oxford University Press. While lexicographers still use the files of 6x4 slips of paper to communicate with colleagues of the past and the future, for many years now most work has been done using computers. The editors have recently begun to use a specially designed new system, which is a world away from the pen and paper of the first edition, and which is described in detail in this issue of OED News. Another difference the original OED editors would notice if they were able to see the modern Dictionary offices would be the increase in the number of editors working on the project, and that many of these editors are women. This issue takes a look at the changing ways in which women have contributed to the creation and content of the OED since work on the first edition began over one hundred and twenty years ago.

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