Popular Lexicography: Users' Influence in Updating the First Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary and its Children

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Much has been written about the compilation of the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary ( OED ), completed in 1928 with a supplementary volume in 1933, but less so about the period immediately afterwards. This paper concentrates on the phase between the completion of the first edition and its supplementary volume and the start of the project to create the four-volume Supplement to the OED published in the 1970s–1980s. The paper focuses on the dual relationship between editor and user with regard to dictionary content and is evidenced by the archives of the OED , held at Oxford University Press. Within the archive are five boxes of correspondence files known as the revision files, largely covering the first half of the twentieth century; these were compiled with a view to producing a revised version of OED1 . The correspondence includes comment on and suggestions for the first edition of the OED , the first Supplement , and various other Oxford dictionaries. The files were ultimately used as reference material for the production of the second Supplement to the OED . This paper highlights the vital role played by users of Oxford dictionaries in shaping future revisions.