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| Author | Sarah Ogilvie |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Volunteer contributors to the Oxford English Dictionary |
| Publisher | Chatto & Windus |
Publication date | 2023 |
| Pages | 368 pp. |
| ISBN | 978-0-593-53640-7 |
| 423.0922 | |
| LC Class | PE1617.O94 |
The Dictionary People: The Unsung Heroes Who Created the Oxford English Dictionary is a 2023 book by Sarah Ogilvie. The book examines the volunteer contributors who responded to public appeals by the Oxford English Dictionary for words. After finding address books that had belonged to editor James Murray in the basement archive of the Oxford University Press, Ogilvie conducted research into the identities of the contributors. Murray's address books, combined with those of Frederick Furnivall, included the names of some 3000 volunteers alongside the words they had submitted quotations for and which books they had used.
The Dictionary People is structured as an abecedary, with each chapter focussing on a particular type of contributor, such as "C for Cannibal", "H for Hopeless", and "P for Pornographer".