ABSTRACT

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) 1 is a historical dictionary presenting the histories of English words. Its headword forms are typically contemporary English words, given in the form in which they typically appear in published written sources, although some words included in the dictionary are obsolete, and these usually appear under a hypothesized modern English word form (see Section 10.2 for exemplification of the approach applied for such items). A comprehensive account of the history and development of each word is given, including a detailed etymology standing at the head of a series of senses arranged chronologically, with illustrative quotation evidence given for each sense. Crucially for the purposes of this chapter, each OED entry also presents an account of the historical spelling variation shown by each word, compiled and presented so as to complement the other parts of the dictionary entry, to enable the dictionary to present a coordinated account of the formal and semantic history of each word.