The Life of a Lexicographer
Posted on November 6, 2006
In a somewhat lengthy article, The New York Times describes the life of the lexicographers who are hard at work creating the 3rd edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. The dictionary is really a compendium of every word that has ever been a part of the English language. Their work is exacting -- and exhausting, as the language keeps growing and changing.
When I got to John Simpson and his band of lexicographers in Oxford earlier this fall, they were working on the P's. Pletzel, plish, pod person, point-and-shoot, polyamorous - these words were all new, one way or another. They had been plowing through the P's for two years but were almost done (except that they"ll never be done), and the Q's will be "just a twinkle of an eye," Simpson said. He prizes patience and the long view. A pale, soft-spoken man of middle height and profound intellect, he is chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary and sees himself as a steward of tradition dating back a century and a half. "Basically it"s the same work as they used to do in the 19th century," he said. "When I started in 1976, we were still working very much on these index cards, everything was done on these index cards."It's an interesting article and by the end of it we knew -- without a doubt -- that we wouldn't last one day as a professional lexicographer. But we are immensely grateful to those who dedicate their lives to this noble and ancient profession.*****
In its early days, the O.E.D. found words almost exclusively in books; it was a record of the formal written language. No longer. The language upon which the lexicographers eavesdrop is larger, wilder and more amorphous; it is a great, swirling, expanding cloud of messaging and speech: newspapers, magazines, pamphlets; menus and business memos; Internet news groups and chat-room conversations; and television and radio broadcasts.
