Appeal for readers

Your language needs you!

John Simpson, Chief Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary:
‘I would like to invite readers to contribute to the development of the Dictionary by adding to our record of English throughout the world. Everyone can play a part in recording the history of the language and helping to enhance the Oxford English Dictionary.’

One hundred and twenty years ago, James Murray, original editor of the OED, launched an ‘Appeal to the English-Speaking and English-Reading Public of Great Britain, America and the British Colonies’ for words for the Dictionary. The appeal proved that dictionary-making is an exception to most fields of scholarship; anyone can make a valuable contribution. From Minnesota to Melbourne, scholars and readers came to Murray's aid. Without their help, the Dictionary would never have been published. Since that time, many more people have made valuable contributions to the Dictionary. They have been of all ages and from all walks of life (among them writers, teachers, a stevedoring superintendent, a Nobel laureate, a retired businessman, a cryptographer, and, perhaps most famously, Dr William C. Minor, inmate of Broadmoor Asylum). Now, Murray's appeal is being relaunched to mark one of the most important events of the start of the new millennium - the creation of a record of the English language unlike any other.

Lexicographers at Oxford University Press are now engaged upon the huge task of completely revising the OED. The first complete revision in its history, it is projected to cost £34 million (US$55 million). Oxford has taken a big step towards that goal by publishing the OED online, which will incorporate at least 1,000 new and revised entries every quarter. John Simpson: ‘There is no longer one English - there are many Englishes. Words are flooding into the language from all corners of the world. Only a dictionary the size of the OED can adequately capture the true richness of the English language throughout its history, and the developments in world English. Now that the online edition has been launched, I would be delighted to have a host of new readers helping us to map the past, the present, and the future of English.’

Information on how to contribute may be found here.