The Word Detective

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.