News from the OED Archives

In 1951 a student, writing to Oxford about William Michael Rossetti's contribution to the OED, was directed to the Prefaces, where Rossetti's involvement in the first phase of reading and his later work as a sub-editor for parts of B and L is acknowledged. There is no further evidence of his assistance to be found among the Dictionary's papers. Recently, however, pre-editors sorting slips from the OED files have found five letters which show Rossetti as a valued adviser in his field. In a reply to a letter of Murray's of 16 March, 1882, Rossetti talks about his use of 'aberrance' in a quotation, later used in the OED, which Murray wrongly attributed to his more famous brother: 'I am sure that sentence with "aberrances" must be written by me - not by D. G. R. [sc. Dante Gabriel Rossetti]'. Two further letters from 1884 give information about 'aureola' and its artistic and theological uses, in reply to a lengthy query from Murray: 'Can you help me with aureola and aureole, with which I am greatly bothered?'

But perhaps the most interesting letter, found recently in the OED files, is a short note written on 26 November, 1907, in response to a question from Murray about the pronunciation of 'preraphael': 'My brother and I always pronounced the name Raphael with the sound Rahfyel, & Preraphaelite with the same sound. It certainly appears to me that the other PRB's [sc. Pre-Raphaelite Brothers] adopted (perhaps thro' following my brother's lead) the same pronunciation, but it may be that I was a little too positive on this point when I wrote previously. It must no doubt be true that a great number of Englishmen pronounce the raph like man, bat, &c.'. Treasures like this, hidden for a century in the slip files, illustrate the work of a host of volunteer helpers listed in the OED prefaces.