Tag archives: James Murray
Grinches, green eggs, and drawings of fantastic beasts: the language of Dr Seuss
This week it’s the birthday of Dr Seuss, the pen-name of Theodor Seuss Geisel. An American writer of hugely successful books for children, he was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1904. And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street (1937) introduced his iconic visual and verbal style, which was further extended in the ‘Beginner Book’ series, [...]
‘Dr. Murray, Oxford’: a remarkable Editor
Dictionaries never simply spring into being, but represent the work and research of many. Only a select few of the people who have helped create the Oxford English Dictionary, however, can lay claim to the coveted title ‘Editor’. In the first of an occasional series on the Editors of the OED, Peter Gilliver introduces the [...]
Don’t bank on it. . .
With just over a week to go until Christmas, many of us are no doubt looking forward to the holidays and a few days off work. For those working on the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, however, writing the history of the language sometimes took precedence over a Christmas break. Christmas leave in [...]
A soul of fire: celebrating Samuel Johnson
September 18 marks the anniversary of the birthday of Samuel Johnson. Although he wrote a number of works, he is arguably best known for the 1755 publication A Dictionary of the English Language. While it was by no means the first ever dictionary published, its influence was remarkable, not least upon the dictionary which would [...]
Surprising word stories: Mr Punch, Dr Murray, and the first tonk
Many sports fans will be familiar with the verb tonk, which is widely used to describe the action of giving a ball a good firm hit. Less familiar, but common enough, is the noun tonk describing the same action. Both are of course in the Oxford English Dictionary, with histories traced back to the early [...]
A short history of Oxford dictionaries
Oxford is famous for, among other things, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), which has been the last word on words for more than a century. It is the largest dictionary of English, covering the history of the language, and aiming to include all vocabulary from the Early Middle English period (1150 ad) onward, along with [...]
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