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The history of English lexicography begins with the work of monks in early medieval England. At that time, Latin was the language of religion and scholarship, but ordinary readers often struggled with it. To help, monks wrote glosses—brief translations or explanations of difficult Latin words. These were inserted between the lines or in the margins of manuscripts. Over time, glosses were systematically collected into glossaries, which became the first reference tools resembling dictionaries.
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Following Cawdrey’s model, several other lexicographers continued to produce explanatory dictionaries in the 17th century. Notable among them was John Bullokar, whose works expanded the coverage of unusual and scholarly vocabulary. These dictionaries were not comprehensive; they were designed to assist educated readers in understanding specialized or foreign-derived words rather than documenting the entire language.
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A major step forward came in 1604, when Robert Cawdrey published the "Table Alphabeticall", the first monolingual English dictionary. It contained around 3,000 “hard usual English words,” most of them borrowed from Latin, Greek, and French. The dictionary was aimed at “Ladies, Gentlewomen, or other unskillful persons” who might encounter such words in books but struggle to understand them.
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After nearly a decade of hard work, Johnson published his Dictionary of the English Language in 1755. It represented an enormous advance in scope and method. One of Johnson’s innovations was the use of illustrative quotations from great writers, which showed how words were used in real literary contexts. Importantly, he rejected the idea of fixing the language, recognizing that English was constantly evolving. His dictionary became the most authoritative reference work for more than a century.
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By the 19th century, new approaches to language study—especially those influenced by German philology—exposed the limitations of existing dictionaries. Scholars realized that a truly modern dictionary should do more than define words: it should trace their origins, history, and changes of meaning across time. This led to the vision of a comprehensive historical dictionary of English.
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In 1857, the Philological Society of London formally announced a plan to create a "New English Dictionary on Historical Principles". The goal was ambitious: to record every word in the English language, from its earliest appearance in written texts to its current usage. This project would eventually grow into the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).
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The first volume of the OED was published in 1884 under the editorship of James Murray. Murray and his team developed a unique method of collecting evidence: thousands of volunteer readers from across the world submitted quotation slips illustrating word usage. This massive collaborative effort allowed the OED not only to define words but also to show how their meanings had evolved over centuries.
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After decades of painstaking work, the full first edition of the OED was finally completed in 1928. The dictionary was a monumental achievement in the history of lexicography. Unlike earlier works, it provided what could be described as the biography of each word, documenting its origin, historical development, and range of meanings. The OED became, and remains, the most comprehensive record of the English language ever produced.