Oxford English Dictionary
Your Language Needs You
 ‘I would like to invite readers to contribute to the development of the
Dictionary by adding to our record of English throughout the world. Everyone
can play a part in recording the history of the language and helping to
enhance the Oxford English Dictionary’
John Simpson, Chief Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary
The History of the Appeal
One hundred and twenty years ago James Murray (the first editor of the OED)
launched an ‘Appeal to the English-speaking and English-reading Public of Great
Britain, America and the British Colonies’, asking for material for the Dictionary.
The appeal proved that in dictionary-making everyone can make a valuable contribution:
from Minnesota to Melbourne, scholars and readers responded by submitting quotations
illustrating words in use. Without this help from the public world-wide, the
editors would have found it impossible to compile the Dictionary.
Since the Appeal of 1879, many hundreds of people have made valuable contributions.
They have been of all ages and from all walks of life—among them writers, teachers,
a stevedoring superintendent, a Nobel laureate, a retired businessman, a cryptographer,
and (perhaps most famously) Dr William C. Minor, inmate of Broadmoor asylum.
Murray’s appeal was relaunched in 1999 by the Chief Editor, John Simpson, thereby
continuing the tradition of asking the public for help in documenting the English
language.
Can you help create the Oxford English Dictionary? Help us online: Appeal
to Readers
More than 5,000 contributions already received
Since the 1999 Appeal was launched, more than 5,000 examples of new words,
new senses of old words, and earlier and later quotation evidence have flooded
into the OED offices in Oxford. Contributions have come from as far afield
as Canada and New Zealand—from almost every country in the English-speaking
world.
‘These new contributions have been a goldmine. I look forward to receiving
more contributions, and renew my appeal by asking everyone who has useful information
to contact us.’ John Simpson
Some of the words submitted after the 1999 Appeal
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