The Dictionary People

May 1, 2023

In The Dictionary People, linguist/lexicographer Ogilvie chronicles the many volunteers--from a Yale president and a suffragette to the daughter or Karl Marx and three murderers--who helped create the Oxford English Dictionary. Prepub Alert.

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August 1, 2023
The history of the creation of a dictionary built on a passion for words. In her last days living in Oxford, before taking a teaching position at Stanford, linguist and lexicographer Ogilvie, who had worked as an editor at the Oxford English Dictionary, discovered six handwritten address books noting the names of more than 3,000 contributors to the project. Beginning in 1879, these men and women, from all over the world, had responded to a plea by the OED's editor James Murray to submit words and their context for inclusion in the massive dictionary. Based on the information in the address books, which had been carried on by Murray's successors, Ogilvie spent eight years researching the contributors' identities, resulting in a fascinating history of a quirky population of individuals, some university educated, some autodidacts, who had in common a love of reading, a keen sensibility, and a desire to be part of a prestigious endeavor. Her lively compendium of dictionary people includes an archaeologist living in Calcutta who submitted 5,000 words that she discovered in religious books and travelers' tales; the inventors of the electric tricycle, the sewage pipe, and indelible green ink for printing money; several men incarcerated in mental institutions, one of whom was a murderer; a pair of lesbian lovers; and suffragists, such as the secretary of the Birmingham Women's Suffrage Society, whose submissions were drawn not from her political involvement but from her reading in philosophy and religion. Ogilvie's archival sleuthing unearthed juicy scandals. For example, before becoming a contributor, groundbreaking photographer Eadweard Muybridge murdered his wife's lover, for which he was acquitted by reason of insanity and justifiable homicide; and surgeon and Arctic explorer Sir John Richardson saw his reputation tarnished by accusations of murder and cannibalism during a failed expedition to find the Northwest Passage. While bringing to life a host of passionate volunteers, Ogilvie also charts decades of social, economic, and cultural change, mapped by words. A fresh, vibrant, entertaining history.

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Starred review from August 7, 2023
“I am sure that lovers of our language will not willingly let die the names of those who... have labored in the cause of the Dictionary,” wrote Oxford English Dictionary editor James Murray in 1892. In this charming debut history, Ogilvie, another former editor of the OED, answers her predecessor’s 130-year-old imperative. After stumbling upon Murray’s leather-bound diaries and address books in the OED archives, Ogilvie set out to uncover “the dictionary people,” 3,000 individuals across the globe who heeded the call to be part of the largest crowdsourcing effort in history. Invited through newspaper notices to “read the books they had to hand, and to mail to the Editor of the Dictionary examples of how particular words were used,” individuals from all walks of life responded, including “three murderers, a pornography collector, Karl Marx’s daughter, a President of Yale, the inventor of the tennis-net adjuster, a pair of lesbian writers who wrote under a male pen name, and a cocaine addict found dead in a railway station lavatory.” Ogilvie not only introduces readers to a fascinating cross-section of Victorian society, but notes the groundbreaking nature of the OED project; for example, “the radical and open process of the Dictionary’s making... included hundreds of women” at a time when they were often excluded from academic pursuits. The whimsical narrative is also educational, providing extensive insight into the process used to trace the origins of words. Readers will be enthralled.

September 1, 2023
For proof that crowdsourcing is not a new concept, consider the Oxford English Dictionary. A call for examples of word use went out in 1858. In the 70 years it then took to complete the first edition, over 3,000 volunteers from around the world mailed in hundreds of thousands of contributions. They became known as Readers. Using the archival address books and correspondence of James Murray, who spearheaded the OED for 36 years, Ogilvie, an Oxford linguist, gives these generally unsung and unpaid contributors their moment in the spotlight. They come to life in chapters from A (for Archaeologists) to Z (for Zealots), full of determination and eccentricity. Each chapter provides additional insight into Murray's trials, tribulations, and successes as he wrangled paid staff, Readers, and the board of Oxford University Press to bring to fruition this massive project describing English language usage worldwide. Ogilvie's enthusiasm for the Readers who, in Murray's words, "from unselfish devotion and service to that language, have labored in the cause of the Dictionary," is infectious, and this book is a delight to read.

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