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Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary
Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary | Simon Winchester
5 posts | 12 read | 9 to read
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.
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bookandbedandtea
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I've been reading mysteries and thrillers nonstop for a couple months but as I was going through my shelves this week these nonfiction titles jumped out at me. I'm going to make sure I include one or two NF books in my mix each month now.

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BookishMarginalia
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Pickpick

A solid overview of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, focused mostly on the different people involved. A good complement to Winchester‘s The Professor and the Madman, with surprisingly little overlap.

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Texreader
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Pickpick

Less a history and more a celebration of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary with a roll call to recognize the massive number of people who spent decades of their lives devoted to its creation. Unfortunately the long lists of names don‘t make for fine listening to the audiobook. I probably would have preferred the book. It‘s a good read for lovers of words who would like to honor those undertaking this immense task.

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Texreader
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My next Audible book. Getting it queued up to listen on the plane.

kspenmoll Sounds fascinating! 5y
Texreader @kspenmoll So far it is! But I‘m not too far into it. This book has been getting all my spare vacation time: 5y
54 likes2 comments
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Daisey
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Pickpick

This was a reasonably short nonfiction listen about the development and creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. I enjoyed this one a bit more than his book The Professor and the Madman, possibly because of a broader view of the process. It‘s fascinating to consider the time and effort that was put into compiling this dictionary.

#nonfiction #audiobook #Hoopla

Catt I felt the same way about both of Winchester‘s books. This one was interesting but “Professor & the Madman” left me cold. 6y
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