ABSTRACT
In November 1857, Dr Richard Chenevix Trench, dean of Westminster, addressed members of the Philological Society on the subject of dictionaries. Although Trench merely proposed the making of a supplement to existing dictionaries, the following year the society entered into a more ambitious plan for a completely new English dictionary which would show the life history of every word in the language, its origin, and any changes in its form or meaning. This chapter describes a highly ambitious venture to record the current meaning and also the history of every English word. It fell between two stools, the commercial and the academic, and it was plagued with financial problems from start to finish. As with Wikipedia, an innovative use was made of widely dispersed volunteers, since this dictionary could be completed through the combined action of many and there was an equally innovative use of the postal network that linked often isolated contributors together.
