English Dictionaries from the Eighteenth Century Onwards

doi:10.1017/9781009205870.027

24 - English Dictionaries from the Eighteenth Century Onwards

from Part III - Ideology, Society and the History of English

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 October 2025

Charlotte Brewer

Edited by

Joan C. Beal

Show author details

Joan C. Beal: Affiliation:
University of Sheffield

Book contents

Get access

Summary

Often regarded as comprehensive, impartial and authoritative works, monolingual dictionaries of the standard variety of English have never been neutral repositories of vocabulary. Instead, they have acted as vehicles for ideologies of one sort or another, transmitting societal values as well as linguistic information. All dictionary-makers make decisions on whose and which words to include and to exclude; equally all gather and process these words in ways that influence their presentation to the dictionary-user, employing editorial methods and technological means that have varied from one period to another. This chapter focuses on Johnson’s Dictionary and successive versions of the Oxford English Dictionary in an historically organised account of dictionaries to the present day, noting the under-representation in these two works of women as language-producers. It also discusses editions of the Webster dictionaries, of twentieth-century desk dictionaries before and after the introduction of corpus-based lexicography, and online dictionaries.

Keywords

Collins COBUILD corpus-based lexicography feminism sexism Johnson’s Dictionary Oxford English Dictionary prescriptivism women as language producers

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: The New Cambridge History of the English Language
Transmission, Change and Ideology
, pp. 692 - 724

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009205870.027 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2025

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Primary Sources

American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 1969. Morris, William (ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin; New York: American Heritage.Google Scholar

Bolton, W. F. (ed.). 1966. The English Language: Essays by English and American Men of Letters, 1490–1839. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Bullokar, John. 1616. An English Expositor. London: John Legat.Google Scholar

Burchfield, R. W. 1972–1986. A Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary. 4 vols. (Vol. 1: A–G, 1972; Vol. 2: H–N, 1976; Vol. 3: O–Scz, 1982; Vol. 4: Se–Z, 1986) Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar

Cawdrey, Robert. 1604. A Table Alphabeticall. London: J[ames] R[oberts] for Edmund Weaver.Google Scholar

Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary. 1987. Sinclair, John (ed.). London: HarperCollins.Google Scholar

Collins COBUILD Learner’s Dictionary. 2003. Concise Edition. Rammell, Christina (ed.). Glasgow: HarperCollins.Google Scholar

Collins Concise English Dictionary. 2008. [editor unknown] Seventh edition. Glasgow: Collins.Google Scholar

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English. 1911. Fowler, H. W. and Fowler, F. G. (eds.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar

The Concise Oxford Dictionary. 2011. Stevenson, Angus and Waite, Maurice (eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Coote, Edmund. 1596. The English Schoole-Maister. London: Orwin et al.Google Scholar

Dictionary.com. www.dictionary.com/.Google Scholar

Dryden, John. 1693. Discourse concerning the original and progress of satire. In The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse by Mr. Dryden, and Several Other Eminent Hands. London: Jacob Tonson.Google Scholar

Kenrick, William. 1773. A New Dictionary of the English Language. London: Rivington et al.Google Scholar

Kolb, Gwin J. and DeMaria, R. (eds.). 2005. Johnson on the English Language. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar

Johnson, Samuel. 1755. A Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. London: Knapton et al.Google Scholar

The Little Oxford Dictionary of Current English. 1930. Ostler, George (ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar

Merriam-Webster. www.merriam-webster.com/.Google Scholar

New Oxford Dictionary of English 1998. Pearsall, Judith and Hanks, Patrick (eds.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar

OED1 = A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. 1884–1928. Murray, J. A. H., Bradley, Henry, Craigie, W. A. and Onions, C. T. (eds.). 12 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar

OED1 (1933) = The Oxford English Dictionary, Being a Corrected Re-issue, with an Introduction, Supplement, and Bibliography, of A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Murray, J. A. H., Bradley, Henry, Craigie, W. A. and Onions, C. T. (eds.). 12 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar

OED2 =The Oxford English Dictionary. 1989. Simpson, John and Weiner, Edmund (eds.). Second edition. 20 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar

OED Online 2000–. Proffitt, Michael (ed.). www.oed.com/.Google Scholar

Oxford Dictionary of English. 2005. Soanes, Catherine and Stevenson, Angus (eds.). Second edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Perry, William. 1775. The Royal Standard English Dictionary. Edinburgh: Wilkie et al.Google Scholar

The Pocket Oxford Dictionary of Current English. 1924. Fowler, F. G. and Fowler, H. W. (eds.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar

The Random House Dictionary of the English Language. 1966. Stein, Jess (ed.). New York: Random House.Google Scholar

Richardson, Charles. 1836–1837. A New Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. London: Pickering.Google Scholar

Sheridan, Thomas. 1780. A General Dictionary of the English Language. London: Dodsley et al.Google Scholar

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. 1933. Little, William, Fowler, H. W. and Jessie, S. Coulson (eds.). 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar

The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. 2007. Stevenson, Angus and Brown, Leslie (eds.). Sixth edition. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Urban Dictionary. www.urbandictionary.com/.Google Scholar

Walker, John. 1791. A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language. London: Robinson et al.Google Scholar

Webster, Noah. 1828. An American Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. New York: Converse.Google Scholar

Webster, Noah. 1864. An American Dictionary of the English Language. Porter, Noah and Goodrich, Chauncey A. (eds.). Springfield, MA: Merriam.Google Scholar

Webster’s International Dictionary. 1890. Porter, Noah (ed.). Springfield, MA: Merriam.Google Scholar

Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language. Gove, Philip B. (ed.). 2 vols. London: Bell; Springfield, MA: Merriam.Google Scholar

Wiktionary. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary: Main_Page.Google Scholar

Secondary Sources

Allen, R. E. 1986. A concise history of the COD. In Hartmann, R. R. K. (ed.), The History of Lexicography. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 1–11.Google Scholar

Blades, Andrew, and Pennington, Piers. 2020. Poetry and the Dictionary. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.Google Scholar

Brewer, Charlotte. 2005–2021. Examining the OED. https://oed.hertford.ox.ac.uk.Google Scholar

Brewer, Charlotte. 2007a. Treasure-House of the Language: The Living OED. New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar

Brewer, Charlotte. 2007b. Pronouncing the P: prescription or description in English nineteenth- and twentieth-century dictionaries? Historiographia Linguistica 34: 257–280.Google Scholar

Brewer, Charlotte. 2010. The use of literary quotations in the Oxford English Dictionary. Review of English Studies 61: 93–125.Google Scholar

Brewer, Charlotte. 2011. ‘Happy copiousness’? OED’s recording of female authors of the eighteenth century. Review of English Studies 63: 86–117.10.1093/res/hgq102CrossRef Google Scholar

Brewer, Charlotte. 2012. ‘Goose-quill or gander’s’? Female writers in Johnson’s Dictionary. In Johnston, Freya and Mugglestone, Lynda (eds.), Samuel Johnson: The Arc of the Pendulum. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 120–139.Google Scholar

Brewer, Charlotte. 2015. ‘That reliance on the ordinary’: Jane Austen and the Oxford English Dictionary. Review of English Studies 66: 744–765.10.1093/res/hgv032CrossRef Google Scholar

Brewer, Charlotte. 2019. The lexicography of standard varieties of English. In Considine, John (ed.), The Cambridge World History of Lexicography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 484–508.10.1017/9781316827437.024CrossRef Google Scholar

Brodribb, C. W. 1928. Our dictionary. Times Literary Supplement: 277–278.Google Scholar

Burchfield, Robert. 1978. The turn of the screw: ethnic vocabulary and dictionaries. The Listener, 13 April, pp. 454–456.Google Scholar

Burchfield, Robert. 1989. Unlocking the English Language. London: Faber and Faber.Google Scholar

Considine, John. 2012. Introduction. In Franzen, Christine, McConchie, R. W., Considine, John and McDermott, Anne (eds.), Ashgate Critical Essays on Early English Lexicographers. Vol. 4. Farnham: Ashgate, pp. xxi–xxix.Google Scholar

Considine, John. 2014. Academy Dictionaries 1600–1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Considine, John. 2015. Historical dictionaries: history and development – current issues. In Durkin, Philip (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Lexicography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 163–175.Google Scholar

Cowie, A. P. (ed.). 2009. The Oxford History of English Lexicography. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Crystal, David. 2004. The Stories of English. London: Allen Lane.Google Scholar

Durkin, Philip (ed.). 2015. The Oxford Handbook of Lexicography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Fatsis, Stefan. 2021. Thirty-four days: inside Merriam-Webster’s emergency coronavirus update. Dictionaries 42: 45–56.10.1353/dic.2021.0018CrossRef Google Scholar

Ferrett, Emma and Dollinger, Stefan. 2020. Is digital always better? Comparing two English print dictionaries with their digital counterparts. International Journal of Lexicography 34: 66–91.Google Scholar

Firth, John Rupert. 1957. A synopsis of linguistic theory, 1930–1955. In Firth, John Rupert (ed.), Studies in Linguistic Analysis. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar

Frankenberg-Garcia, Ana, Paul Rees, Geraint and Lew, Robert. 2021. Slipping through the cracks in e-lexicography. International Journal of Lexicography 34: 206–234.Google Scholar

Gilliver, Peter. 2016. The Making of the OED. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Giovanardi, Maria Beatrice. 2019a. Change Oxford Dictionary’s sexist definition of ‘woman’. Change.org. www.change.org/p/change-oxford-dictionary-s–sexist-definition-of-woman.Google Scholar

Giovanardi, Maria Beatrice. 2019b. Have you ever Googled ‘woman’? Medium, June 27. https://mbgiovanardi.medium.com/have-you-ever-googled-woman-sexist-oxford–63afb87ee731.Google Scholar

Grimes, Brian K. 2021. Samuel Johnson Dictionary Sources. www.sjdictionarysources.org.Google Scholar

Hall, Rosemary. 2021. From chingas to chopsing: introducing Bermudian English. https://public.oed.com/blog/introducing-bermudian-english/.Google Scholar

Hanks, Patrick. 2012. The corpus revolution in lexicography. International Journal of Lexicography 25: 398–436.10.1093/ijl/ecs026CrossRef Google Scholar

Hanks, Patrick. 2013. Lexical Analysis: Norms and Exploitations. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.10.7551/mitpress/9780262018579.001.0001CrossRef Google Scholar

Hargrave, Orin. 2020. Electronic dictionaries. In Ogilvie, Sarah (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to English Dictionaries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 207–218.Google Scholar

Herbert, A. P. 1935. What a Word! London: Methuen.Google Scholar

Kilgarriff, Adam, Vít Baisa, Jan Bušta, Jakubíček, Miloš, Kovář, Vojtěch, Michelfeit, Jan, Rychlý, Pavel and Suchomel, Vít. 2014. The Sketch Engine: ten years on. Lexicography 1: 7–36.10.1007/s40607-014-0009-9CrossRef Google Scholar

Kolb, Gwin J. and DeMaria, Robert. 2005. Johnson on the English Language. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar

Kramarae, Cheris, and Treichler, Paula A. (eds.). 1985. A Feminist Dictionary. Boston, MA: Pandora Press.Google Scholar

Landau, Sidney. 2009. Major American dictionaries. In Cowie (ed.), Vol. 1, pp. 182–229.Google Scholar

Moon, Rosamund. 2009. The Cobuild Project. In Cowie (ed.), Vol. 1, pp. 436–457.Google Scholar

Morton, Herbert C. 1994. The Story of Webster’s Third: Philip Gove’s Controversial Dictionary and Its Critics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Mugglestone, Lynda. 2005. Lost for Words: The Hidden History of the Oxford English Dictionary. New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar

Mugglestone, Lynda. 2007. ‘Decent reticence’: Coarseness, contraception, and the first edition of the OED. Dictionaries 28: 1–22.Google Scholar

Mugglestone, Lynda. 2010. Registering the language: dictionaries, diction and the art of elocution. In Hickey, Raymond (ed.), Eighteenth-Century English: Ideology and Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 309–337.10.1017/CBO9780511781643.017CrossRef Google Scholar

Mugglestone, Lynda. 2012. Patriotism, empire and cultural prescriptivism: images of anglicity in the OED. In Percy, Carol and Davidson, Mary Catherine (eds.), The Languages of Nation: Attitudes and Norms. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, pp. 175–191.10.21832/9781847697813-012CrossRef Google Scholar

Mugglestone, Lynda. 2013. Writing the woman question in the Oxford English Dictionary. Dictionaries 34: 39–65.Google Scholar

Mugglestone, Lynda. 2015. Samuel Johnson and the Journey into Words. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Murray, J. A. H. 1888. General explanations. In J. A. H. Murray (ed.), A New English Dictionary, Vol. 1, pp. xvii–xxiv.Google Scholar

Norri, Juhani. 1996. Regional labels in some British and American dictionaries. International Journal of Lexicography 9: 1–29.10.1093/ijl/9.1.1CrossRef Google Scholar

Norri, Juhani. 2000. Labelling of derogatory words in some British and American dictionaries. International Journal of Lexicography 13: 71–106.10.1093/ijl/13.2.71CrossRef Google Scholar

Norri, Juhani. 2019a. Gender in dictionary definitions: a comparison of five learner’s dictionaries and their different editions. English Studies 100: 866–890.10.1080/0013838X.2019.1604014CrossRef Google Scholar

Norri, Juhani. 2019b. Treatment of words for illness and disability in monolingual English dictionaries. International Journal of Lexicography 33: 227–250.10.1093/ijl/ecz028CrossRef Google Scholar

OED Editorial 2021. The Oxford English Dictionary: focus areas and goals for 2021. https://public.oed.com/blog/the-oed–2021/.Google Scholar

Osselton, Noel E. 1983. On the history of dictionaries. In Hartmann, R. R. K. (ed.), Lexicography: Principles and Practice. London: Academic Press, pp. 13–21.Google Scholar

Osselton, Noel E. 2000. Murray and his European counterparts. In Mugglestone, Lynda (ed.), Lexicography and the OED. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 59–76.Google Scholar

Pai, Tanya. 2016. Why people are calling the Oxford Dictionaries sexist. 30 January. www.vox.com/2016/1/30/10871598/dictionary-sexism.10.7748/ns.30.43.30.s35CrossRef Google Scholar

Peckham, Aaron. 2021. Update on content moderation. March 16. https://urbandictionary.blog.Google Scholar

Reddick, Allen. 2009. Johnson and Richardson. In Cowie (ed.), Vol. 1, pp. 155–181.Google Scholar

Rundell, Michael. 2002. Good old-fashioned lexicography: human judgment and the limits of automation. In Corréard, M.-H. (ed.), Lexicography and Natural Language Processing: A Festschrift in Honour of B. T. S. Atkins. Grenoble: EURALEX, pp. 138–155.Google Scholar

Russell, Lindsay Rose. 2018. Women and Dictionary Making: Gender, Genre, and English Language Lexicography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/9781316941553CrossRef Google Scholar

Salazar, Danica. 2020. Release notes: Nigerian English. www.oed.com/discover/nigerian-english-in-the-oed.Google Scholar

Silva, Penny. 2005. Johnson and the OED. International Journal of Lexicography 18: 231–242.Google Scholar

Simpson, John. 1991. English lexicography after Johnson to 1945. In Hausmann, Franz J., Reichmann, Oskar, Wiegand, Herbert E. and Zgusta, Ladislav (eds.), Wörterbücher: Ein Internationales Handbuch zur Lexikographie; Dictionaries: An International Encyclopedia of Lexicography; Dictionnaires: Encyclopedie internationale de lexicographie. Berlin: W. de Gruyter, Vol. 2, pp. 1953–1966.Google Scholar

Sinclair, John (ed.). 1987. Looking Up: An Account of the COBUILD Project in Lexical Computing and the Development of the Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary. London: Collins ELT.Google Scholar

Trench, Richard Chenevix. 1860 (1857). On Some Deficiencies in Our English Dictionaries. London: Parker.Google Scholar

Turton, Stephen. 2020. The confessional sciences: scientific lexicography and sexology in the Oxford English Dictionary. Language and History 63: 214–232.10.1080/17597536.2020.1755204CrossRef Google Scholar

Turton, Stephen. 2021. Segregating sex: heterocentric discourse about intercourse in English dictionaries. Journal of Language and Discrimination 5: 48–70.10.1558/jld.18127CrossRef Google Scholar

Turton, Stephen. 2022. The lexicographical lesbian: remaking the body in Anne Lister’s erotic glossary. Review of English Studies 73: 537–551.Google Scholar

Weiner, Edmund. 2000. Medieval multilingualism and the revision of the OED. In Trotter, D. A. (ed.), Multilingualism in Later Medieval Britain. Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, pp. 169–174.Google Scholar

Weiner, Edmund. 2009. The electronic OED: the computerization of a historical dictionary. In Cowie (ed.), Vol. 1, pp. 378–409.Google Scholar

Williams, David-Antoine. 2021. ‘Alien’ vs. editor: World English in the Oxford English Dictionary, policies, practices, and outcomes 1884–2020. International Journal of Lexicography 34: 39–65.Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: WCAG 2.0 A

Why this information is here

This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

Accessibility Information

The PDF of this book conforms to version 2.0 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), ensuring core accessibility principles are addressed and meets the basic (A) level of WCAG compliance, addressing essential accessibility barriers.

Content Navigation

Table of contents navigation
Allows you to navigate directly to chapters, sections, or non‐text items through a linked table of contents, reducing the need for extensive scrolling.

Index navigation
Provides an interactive index, letting you go straight to where a term or subject appears in the text without manual searching.

Reading Order & Textual Equivalents

Single logical reading order
You will encounter all content (including footnotes, captions, etc.) in a clear, sequential flow, making it easier to follow with assistive tools like screen readers.

Short alternative textual descriptions
You get concise descriptions (for images, charts, or media clips), ensuring you do not miss crucial information when visual or audio elements are not accessible.

Full alternative textual descriptions
You get more than just short alt text: you have comprehensive text equivalents, transcripts, captions, or audio descriptions for substantial non‐text content, which is especially helpful for complex visuals or multimedia.

Visual Accessibility

Use of colour is not sole means of conveying information
You will still understand key ideas or prompts without relying solely on colour, which is especially helpful if you have colour vision deficiencies.

Structural and Technical Features

ARIA roles provided
You gain clarity from ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) roles and attributes, as they help assistive technologies interpret how each part of the content functions.