Oxford English Dictionary Published: Defining Language
The first volume of what would become the Oxford English Dictionary was published on February 1, 1884, covering only the words from A to Ant. The project had begun in 1857 when the Philological Society of London declared existing dictionaries inadequate and appointed Herbert Coleridge to create a new one. Coleridge died of tuberculosis two years later. His successor Frederick Furnivall proved a better recruiter than editor. The real transformation came when James Murray took charge in 1879, building a corrugated iron 'Scriptorium' in his Oxford garden where he processed millions of quotation slips sent by volunteer readers worldwide. One of the most prolific contributors, W.C. Minor, was a criminally insane American surgeon confined to Broadmoor asylum who submitted over 10,000 citations. The dictionary was not completed until 1928, seventy-one years after it began. It has never stopped being updated.
February 1, 1884
142 years ago
Key Figures & Places
What Else Happened on February 1
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King John of Bohemia was blind. He'd lost his sight in battle years earlier but still led armies across Europe. In 1329, he took Medvėgalis, a Lithuanian fortre…
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General Koxinga forced the surrender of the Dutch East India Company at Fort Zeelandia, ending 38 years of colonial rule on Taiwan. By securing the island as a …
Charles XII of Sweden refused to leave Ottoman territory for five years after losing at Poltava. The sultan got tired of paying for his 1,000-man entourage and …
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