The history of the Oxford English Dictionary (continued)

part 10 of 10

The First Edition 1857 - 1928 (continued)

VI

During all these years of work, in addition to the growing appreciation which it steadily received, the progress of the Dictionary was diversified by a few extraneous events. On 12 October 1897, a large number of the readers, sub-editors, assistants, and other helpers were enabled to meet each other at Oxford by the generosity of the Provost and Fellows of The Queen's College, who on that date gave a complimentary dinner to 'Dr. Murray, Mr. Bradley, and some others who have helped in the production of the Historical English Dictionary'. The time was a fortunate one, for in that year it was still possible for some of the early workers to shake hands with those who were just beginning to take up the task which they had already carried on so long. Only a small number of the company which met that evening lived long enough to see the completion of the work.

In the same year the Dictionary was by permission dedicated to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, as intimated on a special page inserted in the part for January 1898.

Up to 1905 the whole expense of preparing and printing the Dictionary was borne by the Oxford University Press. In that year, however, a contribution was made towards the cost of the sixth volume, which was also recorded on a separate page in these words:

This sixth volume is a memorial of the munificence of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, who have generously contributed five thousand pounds towards its production.

When the completed dictionary was published in April 1928, the first copies were presented to His Majesty King George, and to Calvin Coolidge, President of the United States, as the highest representatives of the two great English-speaking nations.

On 6 June of the same year the Goldsmiths' Company celebrated the completion of the work by a dinner in the Company's hall in London, at which contributors and workers again had an opportunity of meeting, and of hearing the Prime Minister, Mr Stanley Baldwin, commend the results of their labours in eloquent and graceful terms.

During the progress of the work academic honours were from time to time conferred upon the editors by various universities, and at its completion the University of Oxford marked the occasion by conferring the honorary degree of D.Litt. on the two surviving editors, the Secretary to the Delegates of the Press, the Publisher to the University, and the Printer to the University.

Sir James Murray, as already mentioned, had in recognition of his services to scholarship received the honour of knighthood in 1908, the announcement being made in the Birthday list of 26 June, and the same distinction was bestowed on the third editor in the Birthday list of 3 June, 1928.

After the completion of the Dictionary in 1928, editorial work did not immediately cease. Since the OED had been published over a period of forty-four years, it was inevitable that many later additions to the language, both of new words and of new senses, should be lacking in the earlier volumes, and that even the later should to some extent present similar deficiencies. To remedy this as far as possible, the succeeding five years were devoted to the preparation of a supplementary volume, the scope of which is explained in the next section. After this work had been finished the original ten-volume New English Dictionary on Historical Principles was, in August 1933, reissued as The Oxford English Dictionary in twelve volumes. An additional volume was issued at the same time, containing the Supplement of new words and meanings, the Additions and Emendations prefixed to the original volumes, revised and amplified, a List of Spurious Words, and a List of Books quoted in the principal work; this last forming, as the 1933 Preface has it, 'a bibliography of English literature such as does not exist elsewhere'.

part 10 of 10