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"In eighteenth-century North America, Benjamin Franklin - who owned a firm that printed money for the colonies - hit on the idea of misspelling Pennsylvania on official currency on the grounds that forgers would spell it correctly and the notes could easily be spotted as counterfeit, but that only went so far."

#womensprizeNF

The author looks at the ‘ordinary‘ people who contributed words, their etymologies and sources to the OED, back in the 1800s and early 1900s.

I enjoyed meeting all of these people, as well as learning a LOT of new words. I particularly admired the author‘s ability to link each chapter (A is for Archaeologists, Z is for Zealots) together, and I could imagine her shuffling little cards around, just like the contributors of old.

Contents page!

Love this list! I‘ve read two, loved them both and have a further 2 waiting on my shelf! Feel pretty chuffed with my reading choices! 👍🏼

This is a really interesting look at the creation of the OED, from the original creators to contributors and more. Its structure is fun (A-Z chapters) and it feels like a smooth narrative where it could have been choppy or muddled. I really enjoyed it and think it‘s a great NF pairing for Pip Williams‘ The Dictionary of Lost Words.

It‘s non fiction November these are two of my favorite choices The Dictionary People and Dwell Time📚📕

This took us to parlours, churches, verandas, and asylums to reveal the lives of ordinary Victorian people doing extraordinary things as volunteer contributors to the Oxford English Dictionary. Outside of the well told lives - I was fascinated by the process of compiling the dictionary. In the world of google you forget how human, how arbitrary, how fragile and how magnificent compiling the dictionary was. It‘s art. It‘s history. It‘s amazing!5⭐️

This month"s #bookspin and #doublespin. Feeling hopeful I will read one of them. ?

Does anyone read the Public Domain Review? There are often fascinating gems.

This one is a dictionary of Victorian slang - written in 1860! The article links to a scan of the book, as well as giving background on the work and author. Scroll down for an A to Z example of entries, such as “Old gown — smuggled tea and Pitch the fork — tell a pitiful tale” 😄

https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/dictionary-of-modern-slang/?utm_source...