OED team work in progress

The OED project consists of a number of different groups or teams, each dedicated to dealing with a particular aspect of the OED text. Below is a brief description of the role of each of these groups. In future issues, we hope to provide regular updates on their work in progress.

Reading Programmes

In conjunction with the OED's various online databases, the reading programmes provide the raw material both for new words and for the revision project (e.g. antedatings, recent evidence of usage, and further examples of rare items). Freelance readers and voluntary contributors systematically trawl through contemporary and historical literature, both general and specialized, and submit thousands of quotations per month. Many of these are keyed directly into the department's databases; others are handwritten on paper slips and filed under the appropriate catchword for retrieval when the editors reach the relevant section of the alphabet.

Pre-editing

In-house pre-editorial research assistants do much of the background research in preparing materials for the editors. Tasks include sifting the files for quotations for new words; searching the files and online databases for examples of usage which antedate, update, or expand existing quotation paragraphs; and extracting relevant material from the major historical and regional dictionaries.

Etymology

The etymologists are specialists in the history of the language. Their job is to ensure that the origin of each word, in so far as it is known, is fully documented, either in terms of the Germanic and Indo-European cognates, of the foreign language from which it is borrowed, or of the English elements of which it is made up, with accurately dated linguistic forms and, often, an outline of the word's semantic, grammatical, or phonetic development in English. They ensure that all the variant spellings of the word are listed and dated, and explained if necessary. They also deal with entries for affixes and function words.

General Revision

General Revision editors form the largest of the editorial groups. Their task is to review the bulk of the OED text; to modernize archaic definitions; to research and (if necessary) correct factual information; to add antedatings and postdatings to quotation paragraphs; and generally to ensure that entries present a readable, accurate, up-to-date, and properly documented account of each word's forms, meanings, and history.

New Words and Meanings

The New Words group is responsible for adding neologisms to the OED. Its work includes researching the meaning of new words (or new meanings of existing words) and writing definitions for them; tracing their history to the earliest known usage; compiling quotation evidence from the departmental files and databases; and commissioning further and specialist research on new lexical items from external library researchers and consultants.

Science Editing

Specialist editors work on entries for scientific words doing what the General Revision editors do for the bulk of the OED lexis; in science particular attention has to be paid to replacing archaic wording and terminology. Science editors in the New Words group research and add entries for new scientific vocabulary. Both groups draw on professional scientists for advice.

Bibliography

The bibliography group is responsible for verifying quotation text; for determining which edition of a work (usually the first) is the most authoritative for citation purposes; for commissioning bibliographical research; and for generally ensuring that citation conforms to modern scholarly standards.

Library Research

Researchers in Britain and North America work in the major libraries carrying out requests for the in-house editors in the various groups. They verify the correctness of quotations taken from our files for use in an OED entry; they also seek out the earliest use in English of a word, and in the case of deliberately coined words (such as scientific terms), the place where it or a foreign-language cognate was first coined.

Keyboarding

Keyboarders are responsible for capturing quotations from the reading programmes; for keying editors' corrections to the OED; and for keying (and often editing) the numerous quotations added to both new entries and the revised text.

OED Technology Group

The OED technology group is responsible for all the computing needs of the OED. Its members design and maintain the complex software used within the department; maintain and update the department's numerous databases; and provide day-to-day support for editors working online.

OED Publication Group

The publication group represents the future of the OED. Its members are responsible for planning both electronic and editorial aspects of the proposed online text, to be published on the Worldwide Web. The current group is small but its expansion is predicted as considerations of online publication play an increasingly important role in the preparation of the OED text.

Clerical and Administrative

The OED clerical, secretarial, and administrative staff provide valuable support for the various editorial groups, ensuring that information which comes into the department reaches its correct destination and that research and quotation material passes smoothly from group to group. They also facilitate communication between editors, correspondents, and the general public.