ABSTRACT
The first fascicle (A-ANT) of the New English Dictionary (after 1895, when published by OUP, the Oxford English Dictionary) appeared under the editorship of Dr James A. H. Murray in the spring of 1884 (see Excerpt 46). It was the beginning of a series which continued until the final fascicle in spring 1928 and afterwards, in various other forms, until the present day, when it is compiled as an electronic database. The origin of the Dictionary was recognition by members of the Philological Society that changes to the lexicon had overtaken existing dictionaries. But when an investigatory committee was formed in 1857, it was soon realised that advances in philological scholarship also justified not mere revision but the creation of an entirely new dictionary, planned to trace historical development and aiming at exhaustive coverage of the literary language. Work proceeded slowly at first but was supported by the efforts of hundreds of volunteers, whose task was to read widely, entering interesting words on slips of paper with notes of their context and source. By the time Murray was appointed editor in 1879, substantial collections existed, but much of the credit for ordering and augmenting the materials belongs to him.
