The Dictionary People

Name: The Dictionary People
Brand: Penguin Random House NZ
SKU: 9781529922578
Price: 26.0 NZD
Availability: InStock

The unsung heroes who created the Oxford English Dictionary

By Sarah Ogilvie

0.0 (0 reviews)

3.85

( 1,519 ratings, 318 reviews)

Brief Description

The hidden history of the unsung heroes who created the Oxford English Dictionary LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024 'Unmissable' Stephen Fry 'A delight' Katherine Rundell 'Illuminating' Susie Dent 'Brilliant' Philippa Perry 'Enthralling' Jeanette Winterson What do three murderers, Karl Marx's daughter, and a... Read More

Format: Paperback / softback

$26⁰⁰

Elsewhere:

~~$28⁰⁰~~

AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 3-4 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

The Dictionary People

$26⁰⁰

Elsewhere:

~~$28⁰⁰~~

The Dictionary People

Description

The hidden history of the unsung heroes who created the Oxford English Dictionary

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024

'Unmissable' Stephen Fry
'A delight' Katherine Rundell
'Illuminating' Susie Dent
'Brilliant' Philippa Perry
'Enthralling' Jeanette Winterson

What do three murderers, Karl Marx's daughter, and a vegetarian vicar have in common? They all helped create the Oxford English Dictionary.

The Oxford English Dictionary has long been associated with elite institutions and Victorian men. But the Dictionary didn't just belong to the experts; it relied on contributions from members of the public. By 1928, its 414,825 entries had been crowdsourced from a surprising and diverse group of people, from astronomers to murderers, naturists, pornographers, suffragists, and queer couples.

Lexicographer Sarah Ogilvie dives deep into previously untapped archives to tell a people's history of the OED. Here, she reveals, for the first time, the full story of the making of one of the most famous books in the world—and celebrates the extraordinary efforts of the Dictionary People.

'An astonishing book' Sunday Times

'Utterly fascinating, entertaining, astonishing and as clever as a box of monkeys ... I completely love it' Joanna Lumley

'A fascinating and delightful exploration of the Victorian world ... Wonderful' Nicola Shulman, TLS Podcast

A Financial Times, TLS and Daunt Books Book of the Year

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781529922578

Publisher: Vintage Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 05 September 2024

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Vintage

Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 24.0mm

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 197.0mm

Weight: 269g

Pages: 384

Collections

Education & Reference History & Military Non-Fiction Penguin Books Sarah Ogilvie

About the Author

Sarah Ogilvie teaches at the University of Oxford, and specializes in language, dictionaries, and technology. As a lexicographer she has been an editor at the Oxford English Dictionary and was Chief Editor of Oxford Dictionaries in Australia. As a technologist she has worked in Silicon Valley at Lab 126, Amazon's innovation lab, where she was part of the team that developed the Kindle. She originally studied computer science and mathematics before taking her doctorate in Linguistics at the University of Oxford, and then taught at Cambridge and Stanford.