Sarah Ogilvie – The Dictionary People - Part of Derby Book Festival: Autumn Edition

Description

 

The Oxford English Dictionary has long been associated with elite institutions and Victorian men; its longest-serving editor, James Murray, devoted 36 years to the project – as far as the letter T.

But the Dictionary also relied on contributions from members of the public as well as the experts. Finished in 1928, its 414,825 entries had been crowdsourced from a surprising and diverse group of people: from archaeologists and astronomers to murderers, naturists, novelists, pornographers, queer couples, suffragists, vicars and vegetarians.

Lexicographer Sarah Ogilvie dives deep into previously untapped archives to tell a people’s history of the Oxford English Dictionary.