The Oxford English Dictionary

‘A dictionary is a word-book which collects somebody’s words into

somebody’s book. Whose words are collected, how they are collected, and
who collects them all influence what kind of book a given dictionary turns out
to be and, in turn, whose purpose it can best serve.’
(A Feminist Dictionary (Kramarae and Treichler, 1985))

Q. How far is the OED a comprehensive, objective, authoritative source of word

meanings?

Primary Material

www.oed.com
The Oxford English Dictionary, 12 vols (1884-1928) + Supplement (1933)
A Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary, 4 vols (1972-1984)
The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. (1989 = amalgamation of 1st ed. and
supplements)

Secondary Material

Hans Aarsleff, The Study of Language in England 1780-1860 (1967), chs. 4-6.
Donna Lee Berg, A Guide to the Oxford English Dictionary (1993)
Charlotte Brewer, “The Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary,” Review of
English Studies 44 (1993), 313-342.
R. Burchfield, “Dictionaries and Ethnic Sensibilities,” in The State of the Language,
ed. L. Michaels and C. Ricks.
Lynda Mugglestone (ed.), Lexicography and the OED: Pioneers in the Untrodden
Forest (2000)
Lynda Mugglestone, Lost for Words: the Hidden History of the OED (2005)
K.M. Elisabeth Murray, Caught in the Web of Words: James A.H. Murray and the
Oxford English Dictionary (1977), ch. 10.
N. Osselton, Chosen Words: Past and Present Problems for Dictionary Makers
(1995)
Jürgen Schäfer, Documentation in the O.E.D.: Shakespeare and Nashe as Test Cases
(1980)
T.A. Shippey, The Road to Middle-Earth (1982), ch. 1 “Lit. and Lang.”
E.G. Stanley, “The Oxford English Dictionary and Supplement: The Integrated
Edition of 1989,” RES n.s. 41 (1990), 76-88 [and correspondence: RES 42 (1991), 81-
83].
John Willinsky, Empire of Words: The Reign of the OED (1994)