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Tags: lexicography

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  The Professor and the Madman

  A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

  by Simon Winchester

  The Professor and the Madman , masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- and literary history. The compilation of the OED began in 1857, it was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led... (more)
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  The Meaning of Everything

  The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary

  by Simon Winchester

  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... (more)
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  Predicting New Words: The Secrets of Their Success

  by Allan A. Metcalf

  Have you ever aspired to gain linguistic immortality by making up a word? Many people — such famous writers as Jonathan Swift, Lewis Carroll, and Dr. Seuss, along with many lesser-knowns — have coined new words that have endured. But most of the new words people put forward fail to find favor. Why are some new words adopted, while others are ignored? Allan Metcalf explores this question in his fascinating look at... (more)
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  Samuel Johnson Biography

  by Peter Martin

  Poet, essayist, biographer, lexicographer, critic, conversationalist and wit, Dr Johnson is one of the great figures of English literature, perhaps the most quoted English writer after Shakespeare. Our view of Johnson has been overwhelmingly shaped by James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, published in 1791, the most famous biography in the English language. But invaluable as Boswell is as a source, he should not... (more)
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  Professor and the madman

  by Simon Winchester

  The making of the "Oxford English Dictionary" was a monumental 50 year task requiring thousands of volunteers. One of the keenest volunteers was a W C Minor who astonished everyone by refusing to come to Oxford to receive his congratulations. In the end, James Murray, the "OED's" editor, went to Crowthorne in Berkshire to meet him. What he found was incredible - Minor was a millionaire American civil war surgeon... (more)
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  Penguin Readers Level 5: the Surgeon of Crowthorne: Book and Audio Cassette (Penguin Readers)

  by Simon Winchester

  In the nineteenth century, two distinguished clever men become friends. But they come from very different backgrounds, one is a brilliant academic, the other is a madman and murderer. In spite of this they work together on one of the greatest works in the English language. An intriguing tale about the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary.
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  A Dictionary of Modern English Usage (Wordsworth Collection)

  by H. W. Fowler

  A standard reference work throughout the English-speaking world, this work is remarkable not only for the completeness of its information but for the wit and common sense with which it has been compiled.
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  Dewdroppers, Waldos, and Slackers: A Decade-by-Decade Guide to the Vanishing Vocabulary of the Twentieth Century

  by Rosemarie Ostler

  Every era of the twentieth century from the "Roaring Twenties" to the "Me Decade" brought its own fads and trends and the language to go with them: fresh youth slang, up-to-the-minute buzzwords, and colorful catch phrases. Most of this new vocabulary exploded into the vernacular, only to fizzle a few years later as newer trends and more current events demanded their own terminology. Giving yesterday's words... (more)
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  The Highly Selective Dictionary For The Extraordinarily Literate

  by Eugene H. Ehrlich

  Between TV talk shows, radio call-in programs, email and the Internet, spontaneous-talk media has skyrocketed in the '90s. People are interacting more frequently and more fervently than ever before, turning the English language into an indecipherable mess. Now, this unique and concise compendium presents the most confused and misused words in the language today -- words misused by careless speakers and writers... (more)