Oxford English Dictionary

High school (ages 12+)
People & Society

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/oxford-english-dictionary

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the year of initial proposal?1857
2. What is the editor-in-chief of first edition?James Murray
3. Why did people start the Oxford English Dictionary?They noticed that other dictionaries were missing many words and wanted a book that recorded all English words and their history.
4. How did the Oxford English Dictionary get its words?Volunteer readers searched books for words, wrote down examples, and sent them to editors who used them to create dictionary entries.

Lexicography: The practice of compiling and writing dictionaries.
Diachronic Linguistics: The study of language change over time.
Etymology: The study of the origin of words and the way in which their meanings have changed throughout history.
Semantic Shift: The process by which a word's meaning changes over time.