Table Of Content

s e Digitized by the Internet Archive 2013 in http://archive.org/details/readingoedonemanOOshea "If y< THA' AND HA I DON <S° obses journ The i Engli since years dictic Who its en fuelec In t\ umen wit a insid eye-c and oddl) disco Fille m isc is a ! the d OED Reading the "If Tl A> I 1 DC ob< jou Th En sin ye; die w its fu( In un wi n i ey an od di Fi in is th Reading the OED One Man, One Year, 21,710 Pages AMMON SHEA APerigeeBook APERIGEEBOOK PublishedbythePenguinGroup PenguinGroup(USA)Inc. If 375HudsonStreet,NewYork,NewYork10014,USA TI PenguinGroup(Canada),90EglintonAvenueEast,Suite700,Toronto,OntarioM4P2Y3,Canada ^j (adivisionofPearsonPenguinCanadaInc.) PenguinBooksLtd.,80Strand,LondonWC2RORL,England I PenguinGroupIreland,25St.Stephen'sGreen,Dublin2,Ireland (adivisionofPenguinBooksLtd.) D( PenguinGroup(Australia),250CamberwellRoad,Camberwell,Victoria3124,Australia (adivisionofPearsonAustraliaGroupPty.Ltd.) PenguinBooksIndiaPvt.Ltd.,11CommunityCentre,PanchsheelPark,NewDelhi—110017,India £ PenguinGroup(NZ),67ApolloDrive,Rosedale,NorthShore0632,NewZealand 1 (adivisionofPearsonNewZealandLtd.) VL^ PenguinBooks(SouthAfrica)(Pty.)Ltd.,24SturdeeAvenue,Rosebank,Johannesburg2196, OD SouthAfrica JO1 PenguinBooksLtd.,RegisteredOffices:80Strand,LondonWC2RORL,England WhiletheauthorhasmadeeveryefforttoprovideaccuratetelephonenumbersandInternetaddressesatthetimeof y publication,neitherthepublishernortheauthorassumesanyresponsibilityforerrors,orforchangesthatoccurafter J- publication.Further,thepublisherdoesnothaveanycontroloveranddoesnotassumeanyresponsibilityforauthoror E third-partywebsitesortheircontent. s1r Copyright©2008byAmnionShea yg TextdesignbyEllenM.Lucaire ^ Allrightsreserved. j( Nopartofthisbookmaybereproduced,scanned,ordistributedinanyprintedorelectronic formwithoutpermission.Pleasedonotparticipateinorencouragepiracyofcopyrightedmaterialsin violationoftheauthor'srights.Purchaseonlyauthorizededitions. PERIGEEisaregisteredtrademarkofPenguinGroup(USA)Inc. The"P"designisatrademarkbelongingtoPenguinGroup(USA)Inc. fll Firstedition:August2008 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData In SheaAmnion. ur ReadingtheOED:oneman,oneyear,21,730pages/AmnionShea—1sted. ^ p. cm. "APerigeeBook" n ISBN978-0-399-53398-3 j 1. OxfordEnglishdictionary. 2. Encyclopediasanddictionaries—Historyandcriticism. 3. Englishlanguage— ey Lexicography. 4. Englishlanguage—Etymology. I. Title ai PE1617.094S542008 423'.028-dc22 2007046163 0( PRINTEDINTHEUNITEDSTATESOI-AMERICA di 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Thisbookdescribestherealexperiencesofrealpeople.Theauthorhasdisguisedtheidentitiesofsome,andinsome r instancescreatedcompositecharacters,butnoneofthesechangeshasaffectedthetruthfulnessandaccuracyofhis m story- ForAlix who helpsme define the world y "Il Tl A] I ob joi Tl Ei sii ye di W its fu Ir ui w i r e) ;u o( d F ii is tl Acknowledgments Jim Rutman agreatliteraryagentwho notonlydidnot y atmewhenIfirstproposedthe idea, butinsteadspent an inordinateamountoftimehelpingmemake itbetter. MarianLizzi, simply everythingan editor shouldbej andajoyto work with. Katie Wasilewski helpfulandgracious y aboveandbeyondthe callofduty. CharlotteBrewer, Peter Gilliver,Jesse Sheidlower andall y the othermembersoftheDictionary Society ofNorthAmerica who hadthepatienceandinclination to answermyquestions.