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The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary
From the best-selling author of The Professor and the Madman, The Map That Changed the World, and Krakatoa comes a truly wonderful celebration of the English language and of its unrivaled treasure house, the Oxford English Dictionary.
Writing with marvelous brio, Winchester first serves up a lightning history of the English language--"so vast, so sprawling, so wonderfully unwieldy"--and pays homage to the great dictionary makers, from "the irredeemably famous" Samuel Johnson to the "short, pale, smug and boastful" schoolmaster from New Hartford, Noah Webster. He then turns his unmatched talent for story-telling to the making of this most venerable of dictionaries.
In this fast-paced narrative, the reader will discover lively portraits of such key figures as the brilliant but tubercular first editor Herbert Coleridge (grandson of the poet), the colorful, boisterous Frederick Furnivall (who left the project in a shambles), and James Augustus Henry Murray, who spent a half-century bringing the project to fruition. Winchester lovingly describes the nuts-and-bolts of dictionary making--how unexpectedly tricky the dictionary entry for marzipan was, or how fraternity turned out so much longer and monkey so much more ancient than anticipated--and how bondmaid was left out completely, its slips found lurking under a pile of books long after the B-volume had gone to press.
We visit the ugly corrugated iron structure that Murray grandly dubbed the Scriptorium--the Scrippy or the Shed, as locals called it--and meet some of the legion of volunteers, from Fitzedward Hall, a bitter hermit obsessively devoted to the OED, to W. C. Minor, whose story is one of dangerous madness, ineluctable sadness, and ultimate redemption.
The Meaning of Everything is a scintillating account of the creation of the greatest monument ever erected to a living language. Simon Winchester's supple, vigorous prose illuminates this dauntingly ambitious project--a seventy-year odyssey to create the grandfather of all word-books, the world's unrivalled uber-dictionary.
Writing with marvelous brio, Winchester first serves up a lightning history of the English language--"so vast, so sprawling, so wonderfully unwieldy"--and pays homage to the great dictionary makers, from "the irredeemably famous" Samuel Johnson to the "short, pale, smug and boastful" schoolmaster from New Hartford, Noah Webster. He then turns his unmatched talent for story-telling to the making of this most venerable of dictionaries.
In this fast-paced narrative, the reader will discover lively portraits of such key figures as the brilliant but tubercular first editor Herbert Coleridge (grandson of the poet), the colorful, boisterous Frederick Furnivall (who left the project in a shambles), and James Augustus Henry Murray, who spent a half-century bringing the project to fruition. Winchester lovingly describes the nuts-and-bolts of dictionary making--how unexpectedly tricky the dictionary entry for marzipan was, or how fraternity turned out so much longer and monkey so much more ancient than anticipated--and how bondmaid was left out completely, its slips found lurking under a pile of books long after the B-volume had gone to press.
We visit the ugly corrugated iron structure that Murray grandly dubbed the Scriptorium--the Scrippy or the Shed, as locals called it--and meet some of the legion of volunteers, from Fitzedward Hall, a bitter hermit obsessively devoted to the OED, to W. C. Minor, whose story is one of dangerous madness, ineluctable sadness, and ultimate redemption.
The Meaning of Everything is a scintillating account of the creation of the greatest monument ever erected to a living language. Simon Winchester's supple, vigorous prose illuminates this dauntingly ambitious project--a seventy-year odyssey to create the grandfather of all word-books, the world's unrivalled uber-dictionary.
260 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2003
152 people are currently reading
7126 people want to read
About the author
Simon Winchester
94 books2,330 followersSimon Winchester, OBE, is a British writer, journalist and broadcaster who resides in the United States. Through his career at The Guardian, Winchester covered numerous significant events including Bloody Sunday and the Watergate Scandal. As an author, Simon Winchester has written or contributed to over a dozen nonfiction books and authored one novel, and his articles appear in several travel publications including Condé Nast Traveler, Smithsonian Magazine, and National Geographic.
In 1969, Winchester joined The Guardian, first as regional correspondent based in Newcastle upon Tyne, but was later assigned to be the Northern Ireland Correspondent. Winchester's time in Northern Ireland placed him around several events of The Troubles, including the events of Bloody Sunday and the Belfast Hour of Terror.
After leaving Northern Ireland in 1972, Winchester was briefly assigned to Calcutta before becoming The Guardian's American correspondent in Washington, D.C., where Winchester covered news ranging from the end of Richard Nixon's administration to the start of Jimmy Carter's presidency. In 1982, while working as the Chief Foreign Feature Writer for The Sunday Times, Winchester was on location for the invasion of the Falklands Islands by Argentine forces. Suspected of being a spy, Winchester was held as a prisoner in Tierra del Fuego for three months.
Winchester's first book, In Holy Terror, was published by Faber and Faber in 1975. The book drew heavily on his first-hand experiences during the turmoils in Ulster. In 1976, Winchester published his second book, American Heartbeat, which dealt with his personal travels through the American heartland. Winchester's third book, Prison Diary, was a recounting of his imprisonment at Tierra del Fuego during the Falklands War and, as noted by Dr Jules Smith, is responsible for his rise to prominence in the United Kingdom. Throughout the 1980s and most of the 1990s, Winchester produced several travel books, most of which dealt with Asian and Pacific locations including Korea, Hong Kong, and the Yangtze River.
Winchester's first truly successful book was The Professor and the Madman (1998), published by Penguin UK as The Surgeon of Crowthorne. Telling the story of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, the book was a New York Times Best Seller, and Mel Gibson optioned the rights to a film version, likely to be directed by John Boorman.
Though Winchester still writes travel books, he has repeated the narrative non-fiction form he used in The Professor and the Madman several times, many of which ended in books placed on best sellers lists. His 2001 book, The Map that Changed the World, focused on geologist William Smith and was Whichester's second New York Times best seller. The year 2003 saw Winchester release another book on the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, The Meaning of Everything, as well as the best-selling Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded. Winchester followed Krakatoa's volcano with San Francisco's 1906 earthquake in A Crack in the Edge of the World. The Man Who Loved China (2008) retells the life of eccentric Cambridge scholar Joseph Needham, who helped to expose China to the western world. Winchester's latest book, The Alice Behind Wonderland, was released March 11, 2011.
- source Wikipedia
In 1969, Winchester joined The Guardian, first as regional correspondent based in Newcastle upon Tyne, but was later assigned to be the Northern Ireland Correspondent. Winchester's time in Northern Ireland placed him around several events of The Troubles, including the events of Bloody Sunday and the Belfast Hour of Terror.
After leaving Northern Ireland in 1972, Winchester was briefly assigned to Calcutta before becoming The Guardian's American correspondent in Washington, D.C., where Winchester covered news ranging from the end of Richard Nixon's administration to the start of Jimmy Carter's presidency. In 1982, while working as the Chief Foreign Feature Writer for The Sunday Times, Winchester was on location for the invasion of the Falklands Islands by Argentine forces. Suspected of being a spy, Winchester was held as a prisoner in Tierra del Fuego for three months.
Winchester's first book, In Holy Terror, was published by Faber and Faber in 1975. The book drew heavily on his first-hand experiences during the turmoils in Ulster. In 1976, Winchester published his second book, American Heartbeat, which dealt with his personal travels through the American heartland. Winchester's third book, Prison Diary, was a recounting of his imprisonment at Tierra del Fuego during the Falklands War and, as noted by Dr Jules Smith, is responsible for his rise to prominence in the United Kingdom. Throughout the 1980s and most of the 1990s, Winchester produced several travel books, most of which dealt with Asian and Pacific locations including Korea, Hong Kong, and the Yangtze River.
Winchester's first truly successful book was The Professor and the Madman (1998), published by Penguin UK as The Surgeon of Crowthorne. Telling the story of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, the book was a New York Times Best Seller, and Mel Gibson optioned the rights to a film version, likely to be directed by John Boorman.
Though Winchester still writes travel books, he has repeated the narrative non-fiction form he used in The Professor and the Madman several times, many of which ended in books placed on best sellers lists. His 2001 book, The Map that Changed the World, focused on geologist William Smith and was Whichester's second New York Times best seller. The year 2003 saw Winchester release another book on the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, The Meaning of Everything, as well as the best-selling Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded. Winchester followed Krakatoa's volcano with San Francisco's 1906 earthquake in A Crack in the Edge of the World. The Man Who Loved China (2008) retells the life of eccentric Cambridge scholar Joseph Needham, who helped to expose China to the western world. Winchester's latest book, The Alice Behind Wonderland, was released March 11, 2011.
- source Wikipedia
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September 3, 2020
It’s inevitable that a book about the making of the OED is going to have its limitations in terms of excitement, and there are times when this one does flag a little. It opens with an entertaining Prologue featuring the celebratory dinner held on the completion of the First Edition in 1928, and thereafter takes us on a trot through the history of dictionaries including of course, Samuel Johnson’s idiosyncratic version. In telling the story of the OED itself, the author concentrates on the role of James Murray, the third editor, appointed after his two predecessors proved unequal to the immense task before them. He held the role from 1879 until his death in 1915, and whilst he did not live to see the Dictionary finished (he had got as far as words beginning with “Tu” at his death) he had brought it to a condition in which it was certain it would be finished. That in itself was in grave doubt for much of the first two decades of his time as editor.
Murray was a most remarkable man. The son of a draper, he was born in a village near Hawick in the Scottish Borders, and left school at 14 as his family were too poor to let him stay. The astounding range of his self-taught scholarship is too long to be set out in this review, but some of it is described in his Wikipedia page, which you can find under “James Murray (lexicographer)”.
The main characteristic of Murray’s time as editor was his commitment to the quality of the Dictionary. For Murray, the Dictionary had to include every word, no matter how obscure, that had ever appeared on the printed page in English. Moreover, all meanings of every word had to be identified, along with a detailed etymology wherever possible. It’s impossible to imagine what a Herculean task this was, though the book does give us an idea, describing for example how Murray would write numerous letters on a daily basis, to everyone from mining engineers and manufacturers of cotton (to enquire of the origin and meaning of technical terms in those industries) to the Governor of the Andaman Islands, to enquire about the origin of the word “jute”.
Murray came under enormous pressure to lessen his commitment to perfection, for reasons both of cost and the length of time it took to produce the Dictionary. In time of course, his stance was proved correct. There was really no point in the OED being a half-hearted effort, and by the 1890s the early volumes of the Dictionary were already being referred to in court cases and in Parliament, accepted as the absolute authority on the meaning of words.
By the time of Murray’s death all the major issues had been dealt with and all that was left was to slog through the remaining letters. The book deals with this period in perfunctory fashion.
I knew nothing at all about this subject before starting the book, so I’m definitely better informed now. I did spot a couple of errors though. Perhaps the most egregious was that the Scottish religious reformer John Knox was described in the book as “the founder of the Church of England”, a remark that left me spluttering incoherently for about twenty seconds. Knox was of course the founder of the Church of Scotland, a Presbyterian church very different from the C of E. There was another issue about a quote from John Knox, but I won’t bother going into it here.
In the midst of the current fashion for pulling down statues, I have an alternative suggestion. The town of Hawick should erect a statue to James Murray.
Murray was a most remarkable man. The son of a draper, he was born in a village near Hawick in the Scottish Borders, and left school at 14 as his family were too poor to let him stay. The astounding range of his self-taught scholarship is too long to be set out in this review, but some of it is described in his Wikipedia page, which you can find under “James Murray (lexicographer)”.
The main characteristic of Murray’s time as editor was his commitment to the quality of the Dictionary. For Murray, the Dictionary had to include every word, no matter how obscure, that had ever appeared on the printed page in English. Moreover, all meanings of every word had to be identified, along with a detailed etymology wherever possible. It’s impossible to imagine what a Herculean task this was, though the book does give us an idea, describing for example how Murray would write numerous letters on a daily basis, to everyone from mining engineers and manufacturers of cotton (to enquire of the origin and meaning of technical terms in those industries) to the Governor of the Andaman Islands, to enquire about the origin of the word “jute”.
Murray came under enormous pressure to lessen his commitment to perfection, for reasons both of cost and the length of time it took to produce the Dictionary. In time of course, his stance was proved correct. There was really no point in the OED being a half-hearted effort, and by the 1890s the early volumes of the Dictionary were already being referred to in court cases and in Parliament, accepted as the absolute authority on the meaning of words.
By the time of Murray’s death all the major issues had been dealt with and all that was left was to slog through the remaining letters. The book deals with this period in perfunctory fashion.
I knew nothing at all about this subject before starting the book, so I’m definitely better informed now. I did spot a couple of errors though. Perhaps the most egregious was that the Scottish religious reformer John Knox was described in the book as “the founder of the Church of England”, a remark that left me spluttering incoherently for about twenty seconds. Knox was of course the founder of the Church of Scotland, a Presbyterian church very different from the C of E. There was another issue about a quote from John Knox, but I won’t bother going into it here.
In the midst of the current fashion for pulling down statues, I have an alternative suggestion. The town of Hawick should erect a statue to James Murray.
January 3, 2008
I can't recommend this enough. Fascinating, humor-full and very readable. You wouldn't think this would be funny, but it is. I mean laugh-out-loud funny. Maybe I'm a complete nerd but this is fascinating and fun and full of things you don't need to know! The people who contributed to the dictionary are truly interesting. I loved hearing about word origins and how they fit into the dictionary -- I wish Winchester would write more on this topic. I've fallen in love with his writing style which sounds to me as though it's meant to be read aloud by a middle-aged British man. I've now onto his Map That Changed the World.
January 3, 2023
In “The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary,” Simon Winchester returned to the subject of his earlier book, “The Professor and the Madman”, with a magnificent, compelling account and a broader examination of the conception and birth of the OED, the world’s most comprehensive and authoritative dictionary. It is quite readable, often thought-provoking, and consistently entertaining, full of wit and humor. With his usual distinctive blend of scholarship and skillfully paced narrative, Winchester tells the ambitious, eventful, personality-filled history of the OED that began in 1857 and ended in 1928 with the publication of its 12 volumes, totaling 15,490 pages, with 414,825 words defined and 1,827,306 illustrative quotations.
October 17, 2018
Simon Winchester has done it again. A clear concise study of the history of the Oxford English Dictionary. I have already read one of his books, The Madman and the Professor, which describes one of the aspects of the project. This book followed that one and described the entire history instead of only one area.
I listened to the audio narrated by the author, but also borrowed the book from the library. It is full of pictures of all the people who were involved, as well as an index of subjects and a list of further reading.
If you thought that creating a dictionary of this magnitude was easy, sorry, you are incorrect. The book took 70+ years and three editors to complete. The first edition (started in 1854) was completed in 1928 and comprised 10 volumes and 10,000+ pages.
This book primarily describes all the people involved in the creation of the dictionary and the methods used to gather the data. A very interesting book that taught me much. Any reader should invest time in reading this book.
4 stars
I listened to the audio narrated by the author, but also borrowed the book from the library. It is full of pictures of all the people who were involved, as well as an index of subjects and a list of further reading.
If you thought that creating a dictionary of this magnitude was easy, sorry, you are incorrect. The book took 70+ years and three editors to complete. The first edition (started in 1854) was completed in 1928 and comprised 10 volumes and 10,000+ pages.
This book primarily describes all the people involved in the creation of the dictionary and the methods used to gather the data. A very interesting book that taught me much. Any reader should invest time in reading this book.
4 stars
Read
March 20, 2019This seems to overlap very much with “The Surgeon of Crowthorne” (UK title) and “The Professor and the Madman” (US title), which I reviewed HERE, starting:
"This is the fascinating, incredible, but true story of the 70+ year project to compile “The New English Dictionary on Historical Principles” - a biography of words that became “The Oxford English Dictionary” (OED). Not that you’d know that from the title. I enjoyed the story more than the novelistic telling of it..."
"This is the fascinating, incredible, but true story of the 70+ year project to compile “The New English Dictionary on Historical Principles” - a biography of words that became “The Oxford English Dictionary” (OED). Not that you’d know that from the title. I enjoyed the story more than the novelistic telling of it..."
September 14, 2008
In The Surgeon of Crawthorne, or The Professor and the Madman as it is more sensationally titled in the States, Winchester makes the point that the book has two protagonists. However, any fair reading of that book would have to say that really there is only one protagonist and that is Dr Minor. The other protagonist that Winchester alludes to is James Murray – the man, more than anyone else, responsible for the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary.
This book has only one protagonist – and that unquestionably is James Murray. For about the first half of this book I thought that Winchester had decided to make some extra money by essentially re-writing his other book on the Dictionary. But after that point the book became fascinatingly interesting and a wonderful companion book to that earlier work.
There are some wonderful photographs and illustrations showing the cards with quotations that came in to the scriptorium in their millions. This dictionary, this remarkable work of love and devotion, really does make an inspiring story.
And a quote to end things off:
“The pictures of those who began the OED haunt us still: legions of elderly, usually bearded men, formally dressed in tweeds and gaberdine, sitting at high desks, pens in hand, volumes open beside them, a heavy, cloistered atmosphere of academic rigour and polymathic knowledge enveloping and embracing them like the very air itself.”
I should imagine there are worse things in life to be than a lexicographer – much worse things.
This book has only one protagonist – and that unquestionably is James Murray. For about the first half of this book I thought that Winchester had decided to make some extra money by essentially re-writing his other book on the Dictionary. But after that point the book became fascinatingly interesting and a wonderful companion book to that earlier work.
There are some wonderful photographs and illustrations showing the cards with quotations that came in to the scriptorium in their millions. This dictionary, this remarkable work of love and devotion, really does make an inspiring story.
And a quote to end things off:
“The pictures of those who began the OED haunt us still: legions of elderly, usually bearded men, formally dressed in tweeds and gaberdine, sitting at high desks, pens in hand, volumes open beside them, a heavy, cloistered atmosphere of academic rigour and polymathic knowledge enveloping and embracing them like the very air itself.”
I should imagine there are worse things in life to be than a lexicographer – much worse things.
Read
November 26, 2020A few years ago I read the The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary, and through the first few chapters of this book I was like, "Is this by the same guy? I'm sure that was by Simon Winchester too. Did he write two books on the same subject?" (it was, he did).
This book is the whole story - the big picture of the creation of the OED, a project that was much bigger than the professor or the madman, and outlived them both. It is a grand tale of a grand dream, conceived in an era of wide knowledge and unlimited ambition. It reads like a tale of another time and place, because it is. We share a language with the creators of the OED, but little else, at the remove of a handful of decades and an ocean.
Lots of good stuff in this book - cameos from Tolkien, etc, uncommon words, an historic overview of the origination of the English language and the emergence of dictionaries.
I liked the Professor and the Madman better.
This book is the whole story - the big picture of the creation of the OED, a project that was much bigger than the professor or the madman, and outlived them both. It is a grand tale of a grand dream, conceived in an era of wide knowledge and unlimited ambition. It reads like a tale of another time and place, because it is. We share a language with the creators of the OED, but little else, at the remove of a handful of decades and an ocean.
Lots of good stuff in this book - cameos from Tolkien, etc, uncommon words, an historic overview of the origination of the English language and the emergence of dictionaries.
I liked the Professor and the Madman better.
January 27, 2022
I used to be a project manager. If I had missed my deadlines by as much as the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary missed theirs, let's just say I wouldn't have retired with a party, a gift and a pension. But, then again, my project was never the first truly comprehensive compilation of every historical and current word in the English language.
This book tells the story of the development of the OED, and if you think I'm exaggerating when I say the project ran late, let me tell you: It was conceived in 1857. They thought it would take a couple of years. It wasn't finished until 1928. Most of the people who started the project were dead by the time the full first edition was published.
It was entertaining reading about some of the colorful personalities who were involved in this great undertaking - and even some of the not-so-colorful unsung heroes. As a person who is still interested in how projects are organized, I also enjoyed reading about the methodology that the main editor, James Murray, developed. Also of note: the dictionary was basically crowd-sourced. We think we're so smart in the 21st century with our wikis, but the original OED was a great big edited wiki. Murray solicited contributions from all over the English-speaking world. That delighted me.
This was the January selection of the book club at my church, and some of the ladies felt that it was kind of tedious. I enjoyed it because I'm a writer and therefore a lover of words. But I did see what they meant. Winchester goes on at too much length sometimes mentioning every single person who was involved in a particular aspect of the dictionary, or every single award and honor won by this or that participant. The book did drag a little in parts.
Like my reviews? Check out my blog at http://www.kathrynbashaar.com/blog/
Author of The Saints Mistress https://camcatbooks.com/Books/T/The-S...
This book tells the story of the development of the OED, and if you think I'm exaggerating when I say the project ran late, let me tell you: It was conceived in 1857. They thought it would take a couple of years. It wasn't finished until 1928. Most of the people who started the project were dead by the time the full first edition was published.
It was entertaining reading about some of the colorful personalities who were involved in this great undertaking - and even some of the not-so-colorful unsung heroes. As a person who is still interested in how projects are organized, I also enjoyed reading about the methodology that the main editor, James Murray, developed. Also of note: the dictionary was basically crowd-sourced. We think we're so smart in the 21st century with our wikis, but the original OED was a great big edited wiki. Murray solicited contributions from all over the English-speaking world. That delighted me.
This was the January selection of the book club at my church, and some of the ladies felt that it was kind of tedious. I enjoyed it because I'm a writer and therefore a lover of words. But I did see what they meant. Winchester goes on at too much length sometimes mentioning every single person who was involved in a particular aspect of the dictionary, or every single award and honor won by this or that participant. The book did drag a little in parts.
Like my reviews? Check out my blog at http://www.kathrynbashaar.com/blog/
Author of The Saints Mistress https://camcatbooks.com/Books/T/The-S...
September 9, 2014
I would have liked to have given this a better rating, but at times the book was just so dull. Winchester wrote another book about the making of the OED and perhaps all of his passion was put into that one. See: The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
Near the end, chapter 7 Winchester explores why so many people helped out with the making of the OED when their only reward was perhaps footnotes in the dictionary. Since he wrote this book in recent times this should not have been such a surprise. Think of Wikipedia! How many people spend hours upon hours contributing to their favorite site, Wiki's abound for all sort of things: music bands, fan fiction, movies, etc. And these people usually don't even get a footnote, let alone contribute to the world's best authoritative book on the English language. It seems obvious to me why people would contribute with nothing to gain, Winchester should have been able to answer his own question. Instead he repeated it too often.
There were some interesting parts, particularity in the beginning. Enough to redeem itself to a middle rating. Final note: an interesting tidbit was to find that J.R.R. Tolkien worked on a small part.
Near the end, chapter 7 Winchester explores why so many people helped out with the making of the OED when their only reward was perhaps footnotes in the dictionary. Since he wrote this book in recent times this should not have been such a surprise. Think of Wikipedia! How many people spend hours upon hours contributing to their favorite site, Wiki's abound for all sort of things: music bands, fan fiction, movies, etc. And these people usually don't even get a footnote, let alone contribute to the world's best authoritative book on the English language. It seems obvious to me why people would contribute with nothing to gain, Winchester should have been able to answer his own question. Instead he repeated it too often.
There were some interesting parts, particularity in the beginning. Enough to redeem itself to a middle rating. Final note: an interesting tidbit was to find that J.R.R. Tolkien worked on a small part.
September 15, 2012
Simon Winchester's wonderful book on the making of the most venerable authority on the English language is a delightful story. I have enjoyed both the hard copy and the CD read by the author.
November 23, 2020
The Meaning of Everything by Simon Winchester is the story of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. And what a pleasingly fascinating story it turns out to be.
I happened to find this book in a second-hand bookshop in Oxford (appropriately enough), having watched the film The Professor and the Madman a few weeks before. This film, based on another book also by Winchester, tells part of the story of the OED’s creation. I really liked the film and I was keen to find out more about the history of the OED. I was therefore thrilled to come across The Meaning of Everything.
It opens with a brief history of the development of English. Starting with the indigenous language of the Britons, the book explains the subsequent linguistic influences concomitant with the invasions of the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Normans. The author then proceeds to narrate the evolution of English dictionaries, from the primitive wordbooks of the sixteenth century to the great, but flawed, dictionary of 1755 by Samuel Johnson.
By the mid-nineteenth century, though, the need for a new, definitive dictionary had arisen. This dictionary was ‘to include the totality of the language,’ providing a definition ‘of every single sense and meaning.’ It also had to offer ‘a full-length illustrated biography of every word.’ It was recognized that this was going to be an enormous book, but just how enormous no one at the time quite realized. Work began on this all-encompassing dictionary in 1860 but it was not finished until 1928. It contained 414,825 words (about 370,000 more than Johnson’s), nearly two million illustrative quotations and 178 miles of type.
Sir James Murray in the Oxford Scriptorium, surrounded by scholarly books and quotation slips from the hundreds of volunteer readers
Over the 68 years from inception to publication, hundreds of people were involved in making the OED. Naturally, the dictionary had several editors, the most significant of whom was Sir James Murray. This remarkable amateur philologist was the son of a linen draper and left school at the age of fourteen. And yet it was Murray who set the dictionary’s high standards and whose design for it remains virtually unchanged today. Working alongside the editors were many contributors (including J. R. R. Tolkien, to name just one). In addition to this staff, hundreds of volunteer readers were required to locate the millions of illustrative quotations.
I relished this book. Like the dictionary itself, The Meaning of Everything was evidently written with a love and appreciation of English. Winchester’s choice of vocabulary is broad and appealing without ever seeming ostentatious. He skilfully characterizes the people involved in making the dictionary and manages to form a captivating narrative. I particularly liked Winchester’s engaging portrayal of Murray, who sounds like a fascinating man.
If you are interested in language or the magnificent scholarship of the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries then I cannot recommend this book highly enough!
I happened to find this book in a second-hand bookshop in Oxford (appropriately enough), having watched the film The Professor and the Madman a few weeks before. This film, based on another book also by Winchester, tells part of the story of the OED’s creation. I really liked the film and I was keen to find out more about the history of the OED. I was therefore thrilled to come across The Meaning of Everything.
It opens with a brief history of the development of English. Starting with the indigenous language of the Britons, the book explains the subsequent linguistic influences concomitant with the invasions of the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Normans. The author then proceeds to narrate the evolution of English dictionaries, from the primitive wordbooks of the sixteenth century to the great, but flawed, dictionary of 1755 by Samuel Johnson.
By the mid-nineteenth century, though, the need for a new, definitive dictionary had arisen. This dictionary was ‘to include the totality of the language,’ providing a definition ‘of every single sense and meaning.’ It also had to offer ‘a full-length illustrated biography of every word.’ It was recognized that this was going to be an enormous book, but just how enormous no one at the time quite realized. Work began on this all-encompassing dictionary in 1860 but it was not finished until 1928. It contained 414,825 words (about 370,000 more than Johnson’s), nearly two million illustrative quotations and 178 miles of type.
Sir James Murray in the Oxford Scriptorium, surrounded by scholarly books and quotation slips from the hundreds of volunteer readers
Over the 68 years from inception to publication, hundreds of people were involved in making the OED. Naturally, the dictionary had several editors, the most significant of whom was Sir James Murray. This remarkable amateur philologist was the son of a linen draper and left school at the age of fourteen. And yet it was Murray who set the dictionary’s high standards and whose design for it remains virtually unchanged today. Working alongside the editors were many contributors (including J. R. R. Tolkien, to name just one). In addition to this staff, hundreds of volunteer readers were required to locate the millions of illustrative quotations.
I relished this book. Like the dictionary itself, The Meaning of Everything was evidently written with a love and appreciation of English. Winchester’s choice of vocabulary is broad and appealing without ever seeming ostentatious. He skilfully characterizes the people involved in making the dictionary and manages to form a captivating narrative. I particularly liked Winchester’s engaging portrayal of Murray, who sounds like a fascinating man.
If you are interested in language or the magnificent scholarship of the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries then I cannot recommend this book highly enough!
May 18, 2009
2 1/2 stars, really. There’s a reason I’ve taken at least a week to get to this summary. It’s been hard to bring myself to find something to say about it beyond a resounding ‘meh.’ It’s sad that this book hasn’t much to recommend itself as a standalone history of the Oxford English Dictionary or as a complement to Winchester’s earlier The Professor and the Madman, parts of which this book reuses and the whole of which it takes a short seven pages to recap. But then, this is a short book. I got the sense that Winchester’s heart just wasn’t in the writing, notwithstanding his clear admiration for the OED itself.
For example, the relationship between the Professor (the OED’s principal senior editor and this book’s protagonist, James Murray) and the vitally-contributing Madman (W.C. Minor, a paranoid schizophrenic institutionalized in England) is retold here as part of a chapter (One. Single. Chapter.) devoted to bringing to light the lives of important OED contributors, those whose names are cited somewhere in the Preface or acknowledgements pages. Minor’s tale follows a bit on Fitzedward Hall, another important early American contributor, albeit in his case a recluse lexicographer. So far, so good. Then the next half of the chapter then treats the histories of others who added to the OED a bit by skiffling through a table of apathetic highlights: “And there were many others besides,” Winchester yawns at page 201, “men and women who were in their own ways just as eccentric, their stories just as strange…,” though Winchester can’t be bothered to recount them. It’s possible his research efforts were frustrated by their obscurity. On page 213 the author italicizes in mild exasperation, “just who were these people?” Simon, you’ve written two books on this subject. Why are you asking me?
The Meaning of Everything begins and, save for the briefest of epilogues, largely ends with Oxford University’s celebration of the OED’s ongoing publication and the Queen’s dedication. However, this affair, yet more fully covered in Professor, takes place about 40 years before the OED itself has been completed and some 20-30 before the death of Murray. Kind of an odd choice for a book “telling the story” (not even “stories”?) of the OED’s origin and creation. Somewhere in the middle of a bit about Sir Murray’s struggles with a meddlesome Oxford don, I was briefly reminded of David McCullough’s far superior book about the Brooklyn Bridge. Both works cover the trials and tribulations that attended bringing Victorian era monuments of stunning ambition and authority to existence, both outlived their principal authors (Murray for the OED, John Roebling for the bridge), and had to be completed by others.
But then, the bridge placed lives at stake and McCullough cared to tell us about the lives of those involved, their biographies, their times. We had a stake in the story of the bridge’s ultimate success not least through those laboring in the sunken caissons, always a hairs’ breadth away from an underwater grave. The worst the OED ever managed was a headache and a slight squint. Possibly someone once threw a back out climbing a library ladder or suffered a series of nasty papercuts. Hardly much of an equivalent. Perhaps that helps explain why this book is so much shorter. But I doubt it.
The OED editors are hard at work on a third edition, all of which can be found online. There are other, better books out there on the book’s history and origins (including the aforementioned one by Winchester). For those curious about the contents of the OED and the uses of language, I’m now reading Ammon Shea’s fabulous book Reading the OED. (Briefly, it’s hysterical; I’m looking forward to jotting down a few cherce quotes.) At any rate, if the story of English compilers and language at all intrigues you, go read those better books. Let this passionless, inconsistent, and annoyingly incomplete account moulder on the shelves.
For example, the relationship between the Professor (the OED’s principal senior editor and this book’s protagonist, James Murray) and the vitally-contributing Madman (W.C. Minor, a paranoid schizophrenic institutionalized in England) is retold here as part of a chapter (One. Single. Chapter.) devoted to bringing to light the lives of important OED contributors, those whose names are cited somewhere in the Preface or acknowledgements pages. Minor’s tale follows a bit on Fitzedward Hall, another important early American contributor, albeit in his case a recluse lexicographer. So far, so good. Then the next half of the chapter then treats the histories of others who added to the OED a bit by skiffling through a table of apathetic highlights: “And there were many others besides,” Winchester yawns at page 201, “men and women who were in their own ways just as eccentric, their stories just as strange…,” though Winchester can’t be bothered to recount them. It’s possible his research efforts were frustrated by their obscurity. On page 213 the author italicizes in mild exasperation, “just who were these people?” Simon, you’ve written two books on this subject. Why are you asking me?
The Meaning of Everything begins and, save for the briefest of epilogues, largely ends with Oxford University’s celebration of the OED’s ongoing publication and the Queen’s dedication. However, this affair, yet more fully covered in Professor, takes place about 40 years before the OED itself has been completed and some 20-30 before the death of Murray. Kind of an odd choice for a book “telling the story” (not even “stories”?) of the OED’s origin and creation. Somewhere in the middle of a bit about Sir Murray’s struggles with a meddlesome Oxford don, I was briefly reminded of David McCullough’s far superior book about the Brooklyn Bridge. Both works cover the trials and tribulations that attended bringing Victorian era monuments of stunning ambition and authority to existence, both outlived their principal authors (Murray for the OED, John Roebling for the bridge), and had to be completed by others.
But then, the bridge placed lives at stake and McCullough cared to tell us about the lives of those involved, their biographies, their times. We had a stake in the story of the bridge’s ultimate success not least through those laboring in the sunken caissons, always a hairs’ breadth away from an underwater grave. The worst the OED ever managed was a headache and a slight squint. Possibly someone once threw a back out climbing a library ladder or suffered a series of nasty papercuts. Hardly much of an equivalent. Perhaps that helps explain why this book is so much shorter. But I doubt it.
The OED editors are hard at work on a third edition, all of which can be found online. There are other, better books out there on the book’s history and origins (including the aforementioned one by Winchester). For those curious about the contents of the OED and the uses of language, I’m now reading Ammon Shea’s fabulous book Reading the OED. (Briefly, it’s hysterical; I’m looking forward to jotting down a few cherce quotes.) At any rate, if the story of English compilers and language at all intrigues you, go read those better books. Let this passionless, inconsistent, and annoyingly incomplete account moulder on the shelves.
October 30, 2007
After I told my husband that I finished this book, he asked how it was. I said "It was kind of boring." And he looked at me and said, "Annette, it was a history of the dictionary. What did you expect." So um. Yeah.
Moral of the story: You can stab women and still have a big vocabulary.
Moral of the story: You can stab women and still have a big vocabulary.
March 6, 2019
I feel so enlightened and have a deeper appreciation for the dictionary, especially the Oxford English Dictionary.
November 16, 2010
I read this in airports and airplanes, while exhausted beyond words, so my thoughts are not in order. Sue me.
Maybe 3.5 stars. I found this a little dry at first, but warmed up to it about halfway through. The Oxford English Dictionary truly is an amazing achievement, and the 70 year history of its first incarnation is astonishing. This book renewed my admiration for the OED, and made me wish all the more strongly that I owned a copy.
Many fascinating anecdotes to be found here. My favorite being the apparently legendary etymological struggle that J. R. R. Tolkien (who worked briefly as an assistant editor on the first edition OED) put up when deriving the source of the (surprisingly old) word "walrus". Oh, to see that notebook...
An amusing recurring theme in this tale is how profoundly everybody underestimated the scope and length of the work required. The effort was really quite staggering. It was a very Victorian undertaking. (Say what you will about the Victorians -- they were pretty awful in some ways -- but man, they sure liked a challenge.) This book also gives an interesting overview of the history of English-language dictionaries, some of which I knew, most of which I didn't.
I found this a good companion piece to Winchester's related non-fiction book, The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. The story of W. C. Minor is only briefly recapped here, but nevertheless the book doesn't suffer from a shortage of eccentric characters.
Maybe 3.5 stars. I found this a little dry at first, but warmed up to it about halfway through. The Oxford English Dictionary truly is an amazing achievement, and the 70 year history of its first incarnation is astonishing. This book renewed my admiration for the OED, and made me wish all the more strongly that I owned a copy.
Many fascinating anecdotes to be found here. My favorite being the apparently legendary etymological struggle that J. R. R. Tolkien (who worked briefly as an assistant editor on the first edition OED) put up when deriving the source of the (surprisingly old) word "walrus". Oh, to see that notebook...
An amusing recurring theme in this tale is how profoundly everybody underestimated the scope and length of the work required. The effort was really quite staggering. It was a very Victorian undertaking. (Say what you will about the Victorians -- they were pretty awful in some ways -- but man, they sure liked a challenge.) This book also gives an interesting overview of the history of English-language dictionaries, some of which I knew, most of which I didn't.
I found this a good companion piece to Winchester's related non-fiction book, The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. The story of W. C. Minor is only briefly recapped here, but nevertheless the book doesn't suffer from a shortage of eccentric characters.
September 5, 2021
The only flaw I could spot in this delightful book was the author's bigotry against orthodox Christianity. For instance, James Murray, the most central figure of the creation of the OED, wore a black beret in the style of one of his personal heroes, John Knox, and Winchester couldn't let pass a mention of the great Scottish reformer without getting in a dig at Monstrous Regiment that proclaimed his ignorance of the book, its author, and women.
But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln enjoyed the play very much, though this time it was about Our British Friend. I've never owned an OED, and though I might could dig up one of the two-volume jobbies at a reasonable price, I don't think my eyes could handle it even with the magnifying glass. The online subscription would be ideal, but I can't justify the $100 annual subscription. But I love it all the same...just knowing that it's out there in all its glory, the fruit of the decades-long labors of Murray and the mad Dr. Minor and the beloved Professor Tolkein (who famously wrote the entry for walrus...and contributed to the one for hobbit) among many others.
I occasionally contribute a usage quote to Merriam-Webster's online edition, which is my very little way of following in their footsteps.
OH!!! And how could I forget that I was cited in the OED!!!!!
The author narrated the audiobook and was, in that role, perfect.
But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln enjoyed the play very much, though this time it was about Our British Friend. I've never owned an OED, and though I might could dig up one of the two-volume jobbies at a reasonable price, I don't think my eyes could handle it even with the magnifying glass. The online subscription would be ideal, but I can't justify the $100 annual subscription. But I love it all the same...just knowing that it's out there in all its glory, the fruit of the decades-long labors of Murray and the mad Dr. Minor and the beloved Professor Tolkein (who famously wrote the entry for walrus...and contributed to the one for hobbit) among many others.
I occasionally contribute a usage quote to Merriam-Webster's online edition, which is my very little way of following in their footsteps.
OH!!! And how could I forget that I was cited in the OED!!!!!
The author narrated the audiobook and was, in that role, perfect.
May 4, 2012
I'm disturbed by the current trend of history authors focusing more on the biographies of the inviduals involved in a project rather than the ideas behind it. Have we as readers convinced them we are that voyeuristic? Is the People magazine approach to intellectual history the only thing that sells these days? Or do hardcore fans simply become so enamored of the figures who made it all possible that they cannot resist the urge to delve into the personal? This would be understandable if an author like Winchester decided instead to write a complete biography with all the depth and attention to character nuance that entails. But he didn't. The tantalizing title lured me with notions of lexis and alphabet amory, but the book generally restricted those ideas to the first chapter and epilogue. If the company I work for or any project I've helped bring to fruition were ever reason for a researcher to spit out juicy tidbits about my personal life and those of my colleagues, I would hardly consider it an honor.
See my review of Bill Bryson's At Home or Michael Davis's Street Gang for more examples of my sputtering over how frustrating this trend is. See Reading the OED and Sleeping with the Dictionary for the sort of word orgies I'm after.
See my review of Bill Bryson's At Home or Michael Davis's Street Gang for more examples of my sputtering over how frustrating this trend is. See Reading the OED and Sleeping with the Dictionary for the sort of word orgies I'm after.
January 19, 2019
A quite lovely little dip into OED history. This is one of Winchester's more enjoyable books, probably because it's shorter and less long-winded. But I did find gaps in some of his historical descriptions of people and events surrounding the OED, and thought he could have fleshed out and organized things just a bit better. Still, quite a fun read and I'd recommend it.
For books on the same topic, see The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary and Caught in the Web of Words: James Murray and the Oxford English Dictionary.
For books on the same topic, see The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary and Caught in the Web of Words: James Murray and the Oxford English Dictionary.
July 18, 2013
Not for everyone, but word nerds will enjoy. It reads more like a 700 page book so at points I just had to skim-too many lists. It does make me more curious about "The Professor and the Madman" which sounds like it may be a much more interesting read. Filled with truly gem-like details-my favorite-that Julian Barnes was one of the "unsung" wordsmiths who worked on the editing of the revised edition.
April 22, 2024
It’s truly amazing that the massive undertaking to define every word in the English language was ever begun, much less completed. Note that it is very different than the movie; both are worthwhile. Aathough the book drags at times, it’s interesting to find out what a democratic process was used to gather the citations.
September 7, 2022
For a relatively short book of <250 pages, with a fair number of full page photographs and illustrations, this was a little bit of a trudge. Though the subject is on paper pretty interesting - the history of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary - it actually didn't make for that entertaining a subject to read about. My personal opinion, but I would've preferred a little more linguistics and etymology and a little less detail of the biography of various key important Victorian gentlemen. I did enjoy this overall, but it felt like a bit of an effort.
November 8, 2024
The inscription of my copy tells me it was bought for me by my Gran Christmas 2003. Well, less than 21 years later, I have read it! A fascinating book, nice time read now with my knowledge of Oxford. After I finished it I hopped on the OED website to see how things were going now.
March 6, 2025
A fun, quirky subject. The kind of book that word-lovers and dictionary-readers will thoroughly enjoy.
When the Oxford English Dictionary was proposed in 1857, it was estimated to take ten years to complete. It took seventy.
This was a delightful read. Winchester's descriptions of those involved perfectly matched some of the word-birds I've known in my life:
• given to the oddest of short-lived enthusiasms
• omnivorous in his appetite for knowledge
• his immense raft of scholarly interests
• a perpetual gallimaufry of delights
When the Oxford English Dictionary was proposed in 1857, it was estimated to take ten years to complete. It took seventy.
This was a delightful read. Winchester's descriptions of those involved perfectly matched some of the word-birds I've known in my life:
• given to the oddest of short-lived enthusiasms
• omnivorous in his appetite for knowledge
• his immense raft of scholarly interests
• a perpetual gallimaufry of delights
March 29, 2016
OED - The Oxford English Dictionary. The phrase conjures in me a picture of a massive book on a wooden library stand opened randomly to somewhere in the middle, with seemingly infinite lines of tiny text - the ultimate source of information about the meanings and derivations of words in English. In my lifetime, I've been able to take the existence of dictionaries for granted. Need a definition? Reach over to the shelf, answers available at my fingertips (and, of course, now even more literally through a networked keyboard). In The Meaning of Everything, Simon Winchester pulls back my "taken for granted" blinders with this story of the long history of the creation of the OED. Between an 1857 speech and the 1928 publication of the final piece of the first edition of the OED - 71 years! Winchester's story combines a straightforward history of the process with attention to the details of a variety of words and meanings. Who knew that "set" would be the most complex word to define in the English language. Who would have expected that the sense of success when the "A" volume was finally complete was nearly crushed when "B" turned out to be far more demanding. Do you know which letter begins the fewest words in English? ("V" - Was that your guess? It wouldn't have been mine). Assembly and publication exceeded the lifetimes of so many who contributed. Leadership always (greatly) underestimated the time remaining to final publication. Heroic commitments of many pulled the project through moments of near collapse. Bureaucrats fumed and fought, funders squeezed, Oxford long withheld its full support, a cast of thousands contributed to the assembly of "all" the words in the English language, senior editors each devoted decades to the collection and assembly of millions of word slips contributed by readers around the world. Thanks to Winchester for pulling together this interesting tale of the creation of a splendid resource. This is an entertaining and informative read for a quiet day, sitting in the sun or by a warm fire, a glass of wine nearby - enjoy!
November 6, 2017
This was fun and readable despite (partly because of?) a writing style appropriately stuffy for the topic at hand. I enjoyed the first couple of chapters the most, especially the parts on the history of dictionaries and lexicography in general. The daunting logistical issues posed by the project were also fascinating — so many problems that simply don't exist any more, like "how do I organise these millions of little handwritten slips" or "how do I keep copies (and keep track) of all this voluminous daily correspondence without going insane". I think overall they'd have saved a lot of time by abandoning the project in favour of putting all that brainpower and hundreds of years' worth of person-hours to work on inventing the computer a bit sooner.
I'd have liked to learn more about the processes involved in hunting down etymologies etc and a bit less about the quirks and habits of the huge cast of characters involved in the production of them, but I suppose that's me being a nerd on this topic and such an exchange would not actually improve the book.
A small thing that needled me enough that I can't help noting it: I was intensely annoyed by the author's snooty footnote "Even Homer nods" in reference to Murray (the OED's chief editor for the majority of the project) writing "less" rather than "fewer" with a count noun. C'mon dude, you spent at least a few paragraphs early on explaining why the descriptivist approach of the editorial team was the only sensible one; can you not manage to generalise this realisation enough to keep a lid on your pointless complaints about perfectly common and accepted usages like that?
*counts to ten*
I liked this book! Worth reading if you like words or are interested in list-making processes, for sure!
I'd have liked to learn more about the processes involved in hunting down etymologies etc and a bit less about the quirks and habits of the huge cast of characters involved in the production of them, but I suppose that's me being a nerd on this topic and such an exchange would not actually improve the book.
A small thing that needled me enough that I can't help noting it: I was intensely annoyed by the author's snooty footnote "Even Homer nods" in reference to Murray (the OED's chief editor for the majority of the project) writing "less" rather than "fewer" with a count noun. C'mon dude, you spent at least a few paragraphs early on explaining why the descriptivist approach of the editorial team was the only sensible one; can you not manage to generalise this realisation enough to keep a lid on your pointless complaints about perfectly common and accepted usages like that?
*counts to ten*
I liked this book! Worth reading if you like words or are interested in list-making processes, for sure!
March 29, 2016
This is exactly the kind of thing I love. You have a grand story of real human endeavor and achievement--the inception and construction of the first Oxford English Dictionary--filtered through the lens of the very human characters involved in its construction and the outrageously difficult, outlandishly remarkable (one man contributed enormous amounts from inside an insane asylum), and everything in between. You get huge doses of history (of language, of dictionaries, of England itself) and large smatterings of personal color (I had known that J.R.R. Tolkien himself helped with part of the W-words, but more of that story is here). All throughout, Winchester's great love of and erudition on the topic of the Oxford English Dictionary shines through like a beacon. I found this book to be remarkable in almost every way. I can recommend it to lovers of words and to those with more than a passing interest in language and the history of the methods by which human beings have been trapping it with the pages of books. Thoroughly engrossing.
September 17, 2007
Fascinating story behind my dream dictionary. The labor it took to create the OED out of whole cloth took multiple lifetimes. This book, while thorough and enjoyable, still leaves much untold. I want more.
May 25, 2024
A great book for people interested in language and words, the author really captures the complexity and immensity of the task of gathering together every word in the English language, a task that most of us living today won't have given much thought to - the dictionary has always just been there - but in an enjoyable and really accessible way. I also really liked reading about all the interesting, brilliant and eccentric people who ran the project, as well as all the volunteer readers and contributors who worked for years without pay, all the while knowing that theirs was a task without end.
Even after decades of work to get the initial dictionary completed, the language had grown again, with new words and new definitions to add into the mix, requiring supplementary sections to be added. And then when those were published, more again...and again...and again...because languages are fun like that.
Definitely recommended.
Even after decades of work to get the initial dictionary completed, the language had grown again, with new words and new definitions to add into the mix, requiring supplementary sections to be added. And then when those were published, more again...and again...and again...because languages are fun like that.
Definitely recommended.
December 31, 2019
This was excellent - who knew that the making of a dictionary could be so fraught with tension, backstabbing and intrigue? If you love words [and if you love reading, you must love words], this is an excellent read as to just how the biggest [and best] dictionary in the world was created and built. Amazing.
May 4, 2025
Bit of a slog and I wish there could have been a bit more of the focus on some of the women but overall a diverse compendium of information and history
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