The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary Paperback – October 14, 2004

Oddly enough, I first became fascinated by words and their meanings many moons ago when I learned the difference between etymology and entymology (and had to use the "trick" of remembering that, because it contained an "n", as did the word insect, entymology was the word which meant the study of insects, and etymology was the word that defined the study of the history and development of words). The world, thank goodness, is full of people who love words and language, and Simon Winchester is one of those people. His enthusiasm comes through on every page of this wonderful book. One gets the impression that Mr. Winchester, if he possessed a time machine, would happily go back to, say, 1880, and be one of the numerous and unsung readers that sent in "slips" to the editors of the "great dictionary project," to show the various historical usages of words. As Mr. Winchester points out, this was a labor of love by the few who were paid, and by the many who were unpaid. The man who was mainly responsible for the form the dictionary assumed, its thoroughness and layout, and who guided the great project from when he signed a formal contract in March 1879, up until his death in 1915, was James Murray. (The 1879 contract, by the way, specified that the project would be completed within 10 years. It wasn't. The OED wasn't completed until 1928, 13 years after Murray's death.) Murray was an amazing man. Although he had very little formal education, he was intellectually formidable - being familiar with over 20 languages. As Mr. Winchester points out, though, Victorian England seemed to produce an inordinate number of such people - and quite a few of them contributed to the creation of the dictionary. A great deal of the fun of this book comes from learning about the personalities of some of these people. Murray's predecessor, Frederick Furnivall, was a brilliant man, but he lacked staying power and lost interest in the project - leaving things in a muddle. (When Murray took over he had to try to track down millions of the vital "usage slips" that were scattered all over the place - Furnivall had some and readers all over England, Europe and North America had others. There were sacks and sacks of crumbling, moldy, wet, and sometimes illegible slips. One sack had a dead rat in it. Another sack had a family of mice living quite happily amongst all that paper, which was perfect "nesting material.") Unfortunately for the dictionary, Furnivall seemed to be more interested in women. He dumped his wife and, at the age of 58, took up with his 21 year old secretary. He was also very interested in sculling, and managed to combine his two favorite interests by frequenting the local teashop and gathering up as many pretty waitresses as he could, and taking them out on the river to teach them the joys of sculling. Another interesting man was Henry Bradley, who became joint senior editor in 1896. He had taught himself Russian in 14 days, and had the uncanny ability to read a book when it was upside down. Mr. Winchester also mentions that the editors sometimes consulted "linguistic advisers," such as James Platt "who knew scores of languages and once famously declared that the first twelve tongues were always the most difficult, but having mastered them, the following hundred should not pose too much of a problem." Sometimes Mr. Winchester mentions a contributor only, I suspect, because of the author's love of language: he relishes telling us about the "magnificently named" Hereward Thimbleby Price, who was born in - are you ready for this? - Amatolakinandisamisichana, Madagascar. The author tells us that the dictionary was supposed to take 10 years, but it took 54; it was supposed to be 7,000 pages, but it wound up being 16,000; and, it was supposed to cost 9,000 pounds, but wound up costing 300,000 pounds. Lest you think think the delays and cost overruns have something to do with British academic quirkiness, Mr. Winchester informs us that it is much more a matter of thoroughness. He points out that a German dictionary started in 1838 was not finished until 1961; a Dutch dictionary started in 1851 was not completed until 1998; and the Swedes, who started a comprehensive dictionary back in the 1800's, are currently stuck on the letter S. "The Meaning of Everything" is a great story, well and lovingly told by Mr. Winchester, full of incredibly bright and interesting people, and - best of all - giving you a behind-the-scenes look at the labor-intensive creation of this great dictionary.

The Oxford English Dictionary is an unrivaled monument to the history, beauty and complexity of the English language. The story of the men and women who made this marvelous work makes for compellling reading, especially in the hands of such a skilled storyteller as Simon Winchester."The Professor and the Madman," Winchester's first best-seller, was the story of Dr. W.C. Minor, an American who had gone to England in what was a vain hope of regaining his sanity. Instead, he committed a senseless murder, and was imprisoned in an asylum for life. Minor found redemption in his otherwise ruined life by devoting decades of service as a volunteer reader/researcher for the OED.In his introduction to this volume, Winchester explains that an editor at the Oxford University Press suggested that since he had written a footnote to the story of the great enterprise, he might want to undertake the main story. Fortunately for us, he took up the suggestion with enthusiasm.The pace of the narrative never falters in its entire 250 pages. The opening chapter provides a brief overview of the evolution of English and of previous efforts to compile a truly comprehensive dictionary of the language--and why all fell short of that lofty goal.What became the OED enterprise had its origins in the late 1850s, but the first completed dictionary pages did not see the light of day until the early 1880s. Why the project was almost stillborn, how it survived deaths, disorganization, lack of funds and innumerable other setbacks--all of this is brought vividly to life in Winchester's tale. Even when the great editor James Murray took the helm and the project finally emerged from chaos, it still faced obstaces, especially from those who would have sacraficed quality in order to produce a swifter, but less authoratative, final product.Today, the third edition of the OED is in preparation by a staff working in modern offices, making use of all the tools of twenty-first century information technology. The contrast to the conditions facing makers of the original OED, laboring by hand, sorting tens of thousands of slips of paper into pigenhole slots in an ugly, dank corrugated tin shed (grandly named the "Scriptorium" by Murray) is startling, and makes their achievement all the more amazing--and grand.Dr. Minor makes a brief appearance in the story, along with some of the other unusual and exemplary volunteer contributors from around the world who combed nearly 800 years of English literature to give the OED its impressive depth. While none of the other's stories may be quite as extreme as Minor's, it's clear that for many, their involvement in this great cause (with no pay and little recognition) also gave depth and meaning to their lives.It's the vivid, human qualities that Winchester illuminates so well make this a great story...one that you won't want to miss.

This is a fascinating story of the decades-long work to complete the most comprehensive ever dictionary of the English language--from the time of its beginning to the present day. Starting in the mid-nineteenth century, teams of scholars from varied backgrounds collected two million quotations from around the English-speaking world that detailed the etymology, uses, and pronunciation of 100,000's of words and idiomatic expressions. The result was, arguably, the most comprehensive and authoritative reference work ever published on any language in the history of the world, one that has become instantly recognizable merely by its initials--the OED. From the beginning of the undertaking, however, its successful outcome was often in doubt because of intrateam rivalries and squabbles, and, equally important, because nearly all involved in the enterprise seriously underestimated the time and money that would be required to assemble a dictionary with the stated intent of collecting literally an entire language encompassing the evolution of every word ever used. I would have given this 5 stars except for the poor editing. Every 'tl', for example, was transposed to a lower-case 'd'. At times I wondered if the Kindle version of the book was published by scanning a hard copy and running an OCR program.

IT IS INDEED A PLEASURABLE READ CONSIDERING THE STYLE ADOPTED BY WINCHESTER IN WEAVING THE PLOT OF HOW THE OXFORD DICTIONARY WAS BUILT BRICK BY BRICK WITH THE HELP OF SO MANY READERS AND TO SAY THE LEAST TO SOME EXTENT HELPED BY CONTRIBUTIONS FROM A LUNATIC MURDERER. THE BOOK INTERSPERSED WITH OLD PHOTOGRAPHS IS A VERITABLE STOREHOUSE OF INFORMATION AND THE CULMINATION OF LONG AND ASSIDUOUS RESEARCH INTO THE ARCHIVES OF OXFORD AND OTHER ENGLISH INSTITUTIONS BY THE AUTHOR.WINCHESTER WHO HAS EARLIER WRITTEN A FOREWORD TO MODERN ENGLISH USASGE BY FOWLER IS INDEED THE SUITABLE AUTHOR FOR THIS MINI-HISTORY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY.FOWLER FOR WHOSE BOOK WINCHESTER HAS WRITTEN A FOREWORD RAISED EYEBROWS ON THE USAGE OF DASHES IN HIS SECTION DEALING WITH PUNCTUATIONS. FOWLER USED TO ASSOCIATE DASH MARK WITH AFTERTHOUGHTS OF THE AUTHOR WHILE COMMUNICATING HIS IDEAS TO THE READERS. HE EXHORTED HIS COUNTRY MEN TO AVOID USING DASHES BY CITING THE INDISCRIMINATE USE OF THE SAME BY LAURANCE STERNE IN HIS TRISTAM SHANDY. I AM BRINGING THIS FACTOR ONLY BECAUSE WINCHESTER ALSO REVELLED IN USING DASHES TO A MAXIMUM EXTENT IN HIS PRESENT WORK. NOTWITHSTANDING THE USAGE OF DASHES THE SENTENCES WERE FULLY BALANCED AND CONVEYED CLEAR SENSE TO THE READER WHEN COMPARED TO THE CLUMSY RENDITION OF LAURANCE STERNE IN TRISTAM SHANDY WHICH FOWLER FROWNEDON THE WHOLE A GOOD READC.L.MURALIDHARAN

A truly excellent book about the work that went into producing the OED. Having read Surgeon of Crowthorne years ago I knew I was in for a good read when a friend mentioned this book to me recently. I read a paperback and I am pleased I did so as there are many photographs and images that are better on paper than digital.

There are very few authors who would have attempted this task and made such a success as Simon Winchester.He has the knack of talking through words to the man in the street of which I am one and a very grateful one at that.He appreciates his assistants and always goes to great lenghths to acknowledge them in his work(s).The book is a thriller and weaves it's way through the tortuous by-ways of what nearly didn't happen because of eltism , small mindedness and snobbery and a total preoccupation with the cost of production.Thank goodness for common sense and dogged perseverance.I will never be able to afford the full dictionary but so what? I couldn't afford a ride on Concorde but it too was magnificent.Thank you SW for revealing a very interesting history of how we ended up with the greatest dictionary of all time - well done you.

A rather tedious and excessively lengthy account of the making of the OED. Recommended only for those with a strong interest in the subject.

A fascinating story well worth the telling.