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Title details for The Dictionary People by Sarah Ogilvie - Wait list

The Dictionary People

by Sarah Ogilvie
Joan Walker
Audiobook (Includes supplementary content)
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Brought to you by Penguin.
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; its longest-serving editor, James Murray, devoted 36 years to the project, as far as the letter T. But the Dictionary didn't just belong to the experts; it relied on contributions from members of the public. By the time it was finished in 1928 its 414,825 entries had been crowdsourced from a surprising and diverse group of people, from archaeologists and astronomers to murderers, naturists, novelists, pornographers, queer couples, suffragists, vicars and vegetarians.
Lexicographer Sarah Ogilvie dives deep into previously untapped archives to tell a people's history of the OED. She traces the lives of thousands of contributors who defined the English language, from the eccentric autodidacts to the family groups who made word-collection their passion. With generosity and brio, Ogilvie reveals, for the first time, the full story of the making of one of the most famous books in the world - and celebrates to sparkling effect the extraordinary efforts of the Dictionary People.
©2023 Sarah Ogilvie (P)2023 Penguin Audio

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Publisher: Random House Edition: Unabridged

OverDrive Listen audiobook

  • ISBN: 9781529901177
  • File size: 320817 KB
  • Release date: September 7, 2023
  • Duration: 11:08:22

MP3 audiobook

  • ISBN: 9781529901177
  • File size: 320859 KB
  • Release date: September 7, 2023
  • Duration: 11:14:16
  • Number of parts: 11
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
MP3 audiobook

subjects

Biography & Autobiography History Language Arts Nonfiction

Languages

English

Brought to you by Penguin.
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; its longest-serving editor, James Murray, devoted 36 years to the project, as far as the letter T. But the Dictionary didn't just belong to the experts; it relied on contributions from members of the public. By the time it was finished in 1928 its 414,825 entries had been crowdsourced from a surprising and diverse group of people, from archaeologists and astronomers to murderers, naturists, novelists, pornographers, queer couples, suffragists, vicars and vegetarians.
Lexicographer Sarah Ogilvie dives deep into previously untapped archives to tell a people's history of the OED. She traces the lives of thousands of contributors who defined the English language, from the eccentric autodidacts to the family groups who made word-collection their passion. With generosity and brio, Ogilvie reveals, for the first time, the full story of the making of one of the most famous books in the world - and celebrates to sparkling effect the extraordinary efforts of the Dictionary People.
©2023 Sarah Ogilvie (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Expand title description text
Biography & Autobiography History Language Arts Nonfiction