February 2000 newsletter

Paul Beale

By John Simpson, Chief Editor, Oxford English Dictionary

It is with great sadness that we record the death, in November, 1999, of Paul Beale, editor of the 8th edition of Eric Partridge's Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English and a long-time reader for the OED.

Perhaps Paul's most remarkable work for the OED consisted of reading his edition of 'Partridge' against the OED, producing many thousands of slips alerting us to earlier examples of slang words already in the OED, as well as making a host of other suggestions for improvements in the OED's treatment of this complex area.

He will be much missed by all his colleagues on the OED.