Do Not Play Scrabble With These People

This year sees the 75th anniversary of a milestone in the history of the Oxford English Dictionary: the publication of the final instalment (or ‘fascicle’) of the first edition of the New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (N.E.D) as it was then known. The event was celebrated at a dinner, held on June 6th, 1928, at Goldsmith’s Hall, in the presence of Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin.

Seventy years earlier, the Philological Society had resolved to publish ‘a completely new English Dictionary’. But it was not until 1879 that James Murray was appointed as the first editor, and agreement was reached with the Oxford University Press to publish the dictionary. The work was planned to be in four volumes, produced over five years. However, by the time of the deadline, Murray and his team had published just the first instalment, ending at ‘ant’, and a drastic re-evaluation was required. When the last fascicle was published in April 1928, it completed a ten-volume dictionary documenting over 400,000 words and phrases.