The Oxford dictionary is the final authority on the English language People respect it a great deal whereas individuals all over the planet are utilising this when they have an interest in learn how to speak english.
The Oxford dictionary is over 100 years old. It was founded in London in 1857. A society of word experts believed the dictionaries of the time were lacking. Their plan was to begin from square one. They had no idea what they had begun.
In 1879 Oxford University press began work on what would become the Oxford dictionary. At that time it was known as being New English Dictionary. They would break it into four volumes with a total of 6400 pages. It would go back as far as 1150 AD. The goal was to finish the work in a decade. It is a good thing that this dictionary exists as we see parallel publications depending on whether or not someone is concerned with how to speak spanish.
Five years into the creation of this early version of the Oxford dictionary they had only reached the word ant. Clearly they were behind schedule. One problem was the constant evolution of English. They had to keep track of new words as well as the new meanings of old words. That’s not easy while looking at seven centuries of language. The Enlish language is so important and as mentioned above many follow the example set by this dictionary and the context is relevant when connected to how to speak chinese.
For four decades work on the Oxford dictionary continued. Many new editors joined the project. The dictionary had expanded from the original concept of four volumes to 10 volumes. It covered 400,000 words. It quickly became the ultimate authority on the English language. 40 years later the initial mission was accomplished.
It wasn’t even in people’s hands before the editors began revising the Oxford dictionary. It reached 12 volumes with a supplement in 1933. 1957 was the next major change. A new supplement was finally finished and published from 1972 through 1986 in four volumes.
In 1982 the task of bringing the Oxford dictionary into the modern world began. The editors began transferring it from paper to electronic format. It took $13.5 million to accomplish this. Five years later the task was finished. The result of this electronic transfer was a second edition published in 1989. It includes 20 volumes each with a little over 1000 pages.
The Oxford dictionary later was published on CD-ROM, and is now available online. What an interesting journey from concept to the present.
