1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:06,360 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:08,039 --> 00:00:12,000 Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a 3 00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:15,120 Speaker 1: show that flips through the pages of history to deliver 4 00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:19,479 Speaker 1: old news in a new way. I'm Gabelucier, and in 5 00:00:19,520 --> 00:00:22,720 Speaker 1: this episode we're talking about the origin of the OED, 6 00:00:23,400 --> 00:00:27,000 Speaker 1: a meticulous record of the English language and an unparalleled 7 00:00:27,040 --> 00:00:30,800 Speaker 1: achievement in publishing more than half a century in the making. 8 00:00:32,640 --> 00:00:43,240 Speaker 1: The day was February first, eighteen eighty four, the first 9 00:00:43,280 --> 00:00:47,080 Speaker 1: section of the Oxford English Dictionary was published, covering the 10 00:00:47,080 --> 00:00:50,960 Speaker 1: words A through ANT. It would take the editors another 11 00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:54,080 Speaker 1: forty four years to finish the rest of the volume, 12 00:00:54,360 --> 00:00:58,200 Speaker 1: but most language scholars, English majors, and word lovers would 13 00:00:58,200 --> 00:01:02,760 Speaker 1: agree it was worth the wait. Today, the Oxford English Dictionary, 14 00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:07,000 Speaker 1: or the OED, is considered the most comprehensive and accurate 15 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:12,560 Speaker 1: English dictionary ever compiled. The current edition contains the meaning, pronunciation, 16 00:01:12,840 --> 00:01:17,000 Speaker 1: and history of six hundred thousand English words and phrases. 17 00:01:17,319 --> 00:01:20,920 Speaker 1: And if that weren't enough, it also features extensive cross 18 00:01:20,959 --> 00:01:24,800 Speaker 1: references to illustrate the different shades of meaning for each word. 19 00:01:25,319 --> 00:01:29,600 Speaker 1: There are more than three million quotations in total, representing 20 00:01:29,640 --> 00:01:34,000 Speaker 1: more than a thousand years of English literature. The seeds 21 00:01:34,040 --> 00:01:38,039 Speaker 1: of this ambitious project were planted in eighteen fifty seven 22 00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:42,200 Speaker 1: by members of the Philological Society of London, an elite 23 00:01:42,200 --> 00:01:46,240 Speaker 1: group of scholars dedicated to the study of language. Many 24 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:49,680 Speaker 1: of the group's members felt that existing dictionaries weren't doing 25 00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:53,400 Speaker 1: justice to the English language. They contained only a fraction 26 00:01:53,560 --> 00:01:55,720 Speaker 1: of the words in use at the time, and even 27 00:01:55,760 --> 00:01:59,200 Speaker 1: then the entries were often riddled with errors. To make 28 00:01:59,280 --> 00:02:02,840 Speaker 1: matters worse, the dictionaries of the day didn't include any 29 00:02:02,920 --> 00:02:07,080 Speaker 1: information on obsolete or archaic words, the ones you'd be 30 00:02:07,200 --> 00:02:09,839 Speaker 1: most likely to look up if you came across them 31 00:02:09,840 --> 00:02:13,320 Speaker 1: in an old book. To solve this problem, the Society 32 00:02:13,360 --> 00:02:17,480 Speaker 1: proposed compiling a new English dictionary, one that would cover 33 00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:21,079 Speaker 1: the entirety of the English language from the Anglo Saxon 34 00:02:21,160 --> 00:02:24,760 Speaker 1: period to the present. The three members in charge of 35 00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:29,240 Speaker 1: the project were Richard Trench, Herbert Coleridge, and Frederick Fernival. 36 00:02:29,919 --> 00:02:33,000 Speaker 1: They were given no strict time frame for publication, but 37 00:02:33,080 --> 00:02:35,240 Speaker 1: it was clear from the start that the book wouldn't 38 00:02:35,280 --> 00:02:39,440 Speaker 1: be ready anytime soon. Unlike other dictionaries on the market, 39 00:02:39,720 --> 00:02:43,600 Speaker 1: this one aimed to provide a thorough chronological history for 40 00:02:43,720 --> 00:02:47,120 Speaker 1: every word and phrase, whether in current usage or not. 41 00:02:47,919 --> 00:02:52,200 Speaker 1: It also sought to contextualize that history by citing quotations 42 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:57,200 Speaker 1: from a range of sources, including newspapers, classic literature magazines, 43 00:02:57,320 --> 00:03:01,960 Speaker 1: and even cookbooks. Collridge name the original editor, and he 44 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:04,600 Speaker 1: realized fairly quickly that if they were to have any 45 00:03:04,639 --> 00:03:07,639 Speaker 1: hope of publishing in their lifetimes, they'd have to get 46 00:03:07,639 --> 00:03:12,000 Speaker 1: some outside help with sourcing all the necessary quotations. To 47 00:03:12,080 --> 00:03:15,840 Speaker 1: that end, he and Fernival assembled a large pool of 48 00:03:15,919 --> 00:03:19,960 Speaker 1: volunteer readers to pour over written texts from all periods 49 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:23,880 Speaker 1: of English language history. The reader's goal was to extract 50 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:27,400 Speaker 1: quotations that helped illustrate the usage of words, and then 51 00:03:27,440 --> 00:03:30,160 Speaker 1: mail them in on small pieces of paper, which the 52 00:03:30,200 --> 00:03:35,400 Speaker 1: team collectively referred to as slips. This system worked well enough, 53 00:03:35,600 --> 00:03:39,840 Speaker 1: but progress remained slow. Then, four years into the project, 54 00:03:40,040 --> 00:03:44,280 Speaker 1: Herbert Coleridge passed away and was succeeded as editor by Fernival. 55 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:49,080 Speaker 1: This change in leadership proved detrimental, as Fernival was far 56 00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:53,680 Speaker 1: less organized than his predecessor. Thousands of quotation slips were 57 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:57,840 Speaker 1: misplaced under his editorship, including all of the entries for 58 00:03:57,880 --> 00:04:02,000 Speaker 1: the letter H which somehow went up in Italy. Work 59 00:04:02,040 --> 00:04:05,000 Speaker 1: on the Dictionary continued off and on for the next 60 00:04:05,040 --> 00:04:08,400 Speaker 1: decade or so, but by the eighteen seventies did pretty 61 00:04:08,480 --> 00:04:11,400 Speaker 1: much ground to a halt. The project didn't get its 62 00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:15,680 Speaker 1: second wind until eighteen seventy nine, when the Oxford University 63 00:04:15,720 --> 00:04:19,240 Speaker 1: Press agreed to publish the book. Around the same time, 64 00:04:19,440 --> 00:04:23,359 Speaker 1: a new editor was appointed, James Murray, a self taught 65 00:04:23,400 --> 00:04:26,599 Speaker 1: scholar from the Scottish Lowlands and a respected member of 66 00:04:26,640 --> 00:04:31,720 Speaker 1: the Philological Society. As editor, Murray breathed new life into 67 00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:36,200 Speaker 1: the Dictionary's volunteer reading program. Amassing more than two thousand 68 00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:40,000 Speaker 1: readers from across the country. They mailed in thousands of 69 00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:43,840 Speaker 1: quotation slips every day, which Murray's small team would then 70 00:04:43,920 --> 00:04:49,279 Speaker 1: painstakingly review and organize. To better streamline this process, Murray 71 00:04:49,279 --> 00:04:53,240 Speaker 1: built what he called the Scriptorium. In reality, it was 72 00:04:53,440 --> 00:04:56,240 Speaker 1: just a sunken shed in his backyard for his staff 73 00:04:56,279 --> 00:04:58,280 Speaker 1: to work in, but it proved to be a game 74 00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:01,960 Speaker 1: changer for the project. It was made of corrugated iron 75 00:05:02,080 --> 00:05:05,240 Speaker 1: and contained more than a thousand pigeonholes in which the 76 00:05:05,279 --> 00:05:09,320 Speaker 1: ever growing horde of slips could be sorted, arranged and filed. 77 00:05:09,960 --> 00:05:13,080 Speaker 1: As time went on, Murray even employed his own children 78 00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:16,159 Speaker 1: at the scriptorium, paying them pocket money to help sort 79 00:05:16,240 --> 00:05:21,640 Speaker 1: slips alphabetically. Initially, Murray and his team estimated the dictionary 80 00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:24,880 Speaker 1: would take ten years to complete and would be contained 81 00:05:24,880 --> 00:05:28,840 Speaker 1: in just four volumes, but after five years on the job, 82 00:05:29,160 --> 00:05:31,960 Speaker 1: they weren't even finished with the a's, having only made 83 00:05:31,960 --> 00:05:35,279 Speaker 1: it as far as the word ant. Recognizing that the 84 00:05:35,360 --> 00:05:38,040 Speaker 1: completed book was going to take a lot longer than 85 00:05:38,040 --> 00:05:42,440 Speaker 1: they'd anticipated, the team decided to start publishing unbound editions 86 00:05:42,520 --> 00:05:46,440 Speaker 1: of the work in progress. The first of these fascicles, 87 00:05:46,760 --> 00:05:50,760 Speaker 1: or portions of a larger work, was published on February first, 88 00:05:50,960 --> 00:05:55,279 Speaker 1: eighteen eighty four. The official title was a New English 89 00:05:55,320 --> 00:06:00,000 Speaker 1: Dictionary on Historical Principles, founded mainly on the materials collected 90 00:06:00,400 --> 00:06:04,160 Speaker 1: by the Philological Society, but the four thousand or so 91 00:06:04,240 --> 00:06:07,520 Speaker 1: people who bought it just called it the New English Dictionary. 92 00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:11,640 Speaker 1: The first fascicle was three hundred and fifty two pages 93 00:06:11,720 --> 00:06:15,880 Speaker 1: long and cost twelve shillings and sixpence or about three 94 00:06:15,920 --> 00:06:20,400 Speaker 1: dollars and twenty five cents. American publishing the dictionary in 95 00:06:20,480 --> 00:06:23,400 Speaker 1: small chunks turned out to be the right approach, as 96 00:06:23,440 --> 00:06:27,240 Speaker 1: the full complete work wouldn't be ready until nineteen twenty eight, 97 00:06:27,800 --> 00:06:32,040 Speaker 1: forty four years after publication began in seventy one years 98 00:06:32,080 --> 00:06:36,360 Speaker 1: after the idea was first proposed. By that point, James 99 00:06:36,480 --> 00:06:39,160 Speaker 1: Murray had been dead for more than a decade, having 100 00:06:39,200 --> 00:06:41,799 Speaker 1: only survived long enough to complete work on the letter 101 00:06:41,880 --> 00:06:45,200 Speaker 1: t The project he once thought could be limited to 102 00:06:45,320 --> 00:06:49,920 Speaker 1: just four volumes, had ultimately ballooned into ten, containing over 103 00:06:49,960 --> 00:06:53,400 Speaker 1: two hundred and fifty thousand main entries and almost two 104 00:06:53,560 --> 00:06:58,080 Speaker 1: million quotations. Even at that enormous length, though there were 105 00:06:58,120 --> 00:07:00,680 Speaker 1: still some words and phrases that it had fallen by 106 00:07:00,720 --> 00:07:04,000 Speaker 1: the wayside a new vocabulary was being added to the 107 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:08,120 Speaker 1: English language every day. With those oversights in mind, the 108 00:07:08,120 --> 00:07:12,120 Speaker 1: book was reprinted in nineteen thirty three as twelve volumes 109 00:07:12,280 --> 00:07:15,200 Speaker 1: plus a supplement. It was with this release that the 110 00:07:15,200 --> 00:07:19,640 Speaker 1: book took on its now familiar title, The Oxford English Dictionary. 111 00:07:20,400 --> 00:07:23,800 Speaker 1: That version of the OED remained in print for decades, 112 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:27,520 Speaker 1: but in nineteen eighty nine it expanded again, this time 113 00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:32,080 Speaker 1: to twenty volumes. It was getting pretty cumbersome by that point, 114 00:07:32,320 --> 00:07:35,920 Speaker 1: claiming roughly as much shelf space as a set of encyclopedias, 115 00:07:36,280 --> 00:07:39,360 Speaker 1: so the decision was made to switch to a digital format. 116 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:42,520 Speaker 1: It took more than one hundred and twenty typists and 117 00:07:42,640 --> 00:07:46,880 Speaker 1: fifty five proofreaders working for eighteen months to digitize the 118 00:07:47,080 --> 00:07:50,600 Speaker 1: entire contents, but from then on the OED could be 119 00:07:50,640 --> 00:07:54,920 Speaker 1: easily accessed electronically, first as a set of CD ROMs 120 00:07:55,120 --> 00:07:59,320 Speaker 1: and later on the Internet. Because the current OED only 121 00:07:59,360 --> 00:08:02,760 Speaker 1: exists in an electronic format, it can now be updated 122 00:08:02,840 --> 00:08:07,040 Speaker 1: every year to better reflect the evolving English language. In 123 00:08:07,080 --> 00:08:10,560 Speaker 1: twenty twenty three alone, more than seven hundred new words 124 00:08:10,600 --> 00:08:15,560 Speaker 1: were added, including modern signifiers such as air, frar, parasocial, 125 00:08:15,760 --> 00:08:19,920 Speaker 1: and super yacht. After all these years, the first word 126 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:23,840 Speaker 1: in the OED is of course still a but the 127 00:08:23,920 --> 00:08:27,400 Speaker 1: back of the book has seen some reshuffling in recent years. 128 00:08:28,120 --> 00:08:31,440 Speaker 1: For a long time, the final word was zyntham, a 129 00:08:31,480 --> 00:08:35,040 Speaker 1: type of malted beverage consumed in ancient Egypt. But in 130 00:08:35,080 --> 00:08:40,439 Speaker 1: twenty seventeen, Zyntham was overthrown by Ziziva, a South American 131 00:08:40,520 --> 00:08:44,560 Speaker 1: weavil that feeds on palm leaves. That kind of shakeup 132 00:08:44,679 --> 00:08:48,600 Speaker 1: underscores the fact that compiling the OED was never going 133 00:08:48,679 --> 00:08:51,720 Speaker 1: to be the work of just one lifetime, Just like 134 00:08:51,800 --> 00:08:55,440 Speaker 1: the development of language itself. The project is and must 135 00:08:55,520 --> 00:09:03,200 Speaker 1: be forever ongoing. I'm Gabe Lucier and hopefully you now 136 00:09:03,280 --> 00:09:06,959 Speaker 1: know a little more about history today than you did yesterday. 137 00:09:07,760 --> 00:09:10,360 Speaker 1: If you have a second and you're so inclined, consider 138 00:09:10,480 --> 00:09:13,800 Speaker 1: keeping up with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, where 139 00:09:13,800 --> 00:09:18,040 Speaker 1: you can find us at TDI HC Show. You can 140 00:09:18,080 --> 00:09:21,400 Speaker 1: also rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts, or 141 00:09:21,480 --> 00:09:23,920 Speaker 1: you can get in touch directly by writing to This 142 00:09:24,120 --> 00:09:28,640 Speaker 1: Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for 143 00:09:28,679 --> 00:09:31,880 Speaker 1: producing the show, and thank you for listening. I'll see 144 00:09:31,880 --> 00:09:36,120 Speaker 1: you back here again soon for another day in History class.