Any Good Books,
March 2020
The Word Detective: Searching for the
Meaning of It All at the Oxford English Dictionary, a Memoir
John Simpson (Basic Books, 2016)
"I'd always liked
approaching things from odd angles: maybe dictionary work would be an
intriguing outlet for my interest in language, literature, and
historical research." That set of interests made John Simpson a
very good fit for job as a junior editor on the Oxford English
Dictionary. It was 1976, and Simpson had a degree in English, but not
much insight into the world of dictionaries, or indeed, into the
world of work. He would go on working on the OED until 2013,
including twenty years spent as the Senior Editor, wisely retaining a
hand in the actual editorial work rather than simply managing the
work of others.
Those thirty-seven years were
exceptionally fruitful and eventful. The original Oxford English
Dictionary took forty-four years to come out in twenty volumes,
beginning in 1884. A supplement appeared in 1933, and a subsequent
four-volume supplement in the 1970's, but the entire edifice was in
danger of becoming an extremely elaborate white elephant, if a means
could not be found to overhaul it.
In 1982, the Managing Director of the
Oxford University Press issued a challenge to the editors of the OED.
"Here was the task, as relayed by the Shark to my boss: take a
look at that incredibly slow project you've been working on since
1957, with your quill pens, mechanical adding machines, slips of
paper, and far too many editors, and see if it's feasible to put the
whole dictionary on to computer so that in future you can race
through the work in no time at all (and produce a first-rate
dictionary along the way."
It was not only feasible: it actually
took less than a decade, which is quite marvelous to think of. There
was, in the first place, a gigantic amount of sheer typing and
proof-reading. The format of the definitions was already regular
enough to fit into a data-base structure, which would help make it
searchable. The pronunciation system also needed to be updated to the
International Phonetic Alphabet, a job that could be automated, but
not easily. The text successfully merged the First edition, all the
supplements, and five thousand or so new words Simpson had been
shepherding through the editorial process.
The twenty-volume Second
Edition came out in print in 1989; the emergence of the CD-ROM
version in 1992 was, in a way, more of an event, because users began
to see how searchable data would lead to new discoveries.
Nonetheless, you'll notice, some of those definitions were a hundred
years old, and another gigantic project hove into view: a complete
review and revision of the Second Edition. The Internet was just a
shadow of its future self, but it promised avenues of research that
had never been accessible before. The searchable Second Edition
proved the principle: "To our amazement, we found hundreds of
new first uses there, hidden away in other entries, and unlockable
before digitalisation."
By 2000, with Simpson running the
show, the OED went online. Revisions went on, with quarterly updates
of substantial chunks of the work, incorporating new discoveries of
earlier uses, and new markings for obsolescent terms. It's big work
being carried out at the atomic level: "The lexicographer sees
English as a mosaic–consisting of thousands of little details. Each
time one of the tiny tiles of the mosaic is cleaned and polished, we
see the mosaic more clearly."
Simpson's authorial demeanor is
pleasantly modest, with flashes of wit. "I come from a
generation and a society where over-enthusiasm was deplored, and
keenness was deprecated. Nonchalant, non-interventionist observation
was the order of the day when I was growing up, and the perspective
stuck." For him, at least, it was the perfect perspective for
the job.
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