The history of the Oxford English Dictionary (continued)

part 3 of 10

The First Edition 1857 - 1928 (continued)

As is indicated in the third of these resolutions, the Unregistered Words Committee had been remarkably successful, during its brief existence, in arousing interest in the Society's undertaking, and in enlisting willing helpers to aid in carrying it out. Towards the close of his paper as printed, Dean Trench had been able to make an encouraging statement on this head. 'Let me mention here that seventy-six volunteers have already come forward, claiming their shares in the task. A hundred and twenty-one works of English authors, in most cases the whole works of each author, have been taken in hand by them; and I may add that thirty-one contributions have already been sent in.' In this way began the system of voluntary readers, without whose help the material for the Society's dictionary could never have been collected at all, except at a prohibitive cost of time and money.

At the meeting on 21 January 1858, 'Mr. Furnivall read a circular which the New Dictionary Committee proposed to issue, stating the plan of the Dictionary and asking for help in carrying it out'. It does not appear whether the circular was actually issued, and further notices in the Transactions for that year are brief and unimportant. A glimpse of the progress that was being made is afforded by a passage in Coleridge's letter to Dean Trench (30 May 1860), which was printed in the second edition of the Dean's paper. 'More than a year passed away in combating various difficulties, and it was not till August 1858, that we felt ourselves in a position to announce the plan of a New Dictionary as a certainty, and to invite contributors to furnish us with assistance.' Negotiations with publishers had been carried on during the year, first with John Murray, and then with David Nutt; finally on 4 November, Furnivall 'stated that Messrs. Trübner & Co. had agreed to publish the Society's New English Dictionary'. The young co-workers, for both Furnivall and Coleridge were still in early manhood, had not only all the optimism of youth, but were embarking on an uncharted sea, quite unwitting of the long course which had to be sailed before the farther shore could even come into sight.

By 1859 the Committee was able to publish full details of the undertaking in the form of a 'Proposal for the Publication of a New English Dictionary by the Philological Society'. This document is a proof of the thoroughness and sound judgement with which the whole question had been considered. Opening with a review of the steps by which the idea of a 'new' dictionary had been reached, the authors of the Proposal went on to lay down certain principles as a basis for the work, of which the two most important are the first and fourth, viz.

Other contents of the Proposal are 'Rules and Directions for Collectors' as agreed upon by the Literary, Historical, and Etymological Committees, and 'Mechanical and Practical Regulations'. These are 1. 'A list of the printed literature of England belonging to the period 1250-1526,' with the added note, 'Those works marked with an asterisk are already undertaken'. 2. 'A list of works of the Second Period (1526-1674) already undertaken'. 3. A similar list of 'works of the Third Period (1674-1858) already undertaken'. This division of the literature into three periods, which originated with Coleridge and was maintained for some time as a basis of collecting, has a real foundation in fact. Although the dates 1526 and 1674 were chosen because the former was that of the first printed English New Testament, and the latter the year of Milton's death, they correspond very closely with significant epochs in the development of the English vocabulary. If arrived at by accident, they at the same time show a sound instinct for detecting the periods of essential change.

The volunteers were also beginning to play their part, and to provide the Committee with material to work upon. 'In April 1859 a paper containing queries respecting etymologies and several difficult passages from Early English books was circulated among members of the Society and contributors to the Dictionary, and conjectures in answer were invited ... So much of the results of this appeal as the Dictionary Committee consider sufficiently valuable, and sufficiently certain to be worth printing' was reported to the Society by Coleridge in a paper entitled 'Hints towards the explanation of some hard words and passages in English writers'. On 10 November of the same year, Coleridge, now formally appointed as editor, presented a 'report on the Society's proposed Dictionary'.

part 3 of 10