Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1913-04-25
MAKING DICTIONARY
Work Has Lasted More Than
Thirty Years.
Sir James Murray TelIo Of scope a,
Undertaking, and Difficulties Ct
Compiling Oxford Lexicon
Be Finished In 1912,

. In an old English garden at Oxford
away from the hurry and strife CT If.
fairs. the wonderful architecture o,
the new English dictionary silently AZ.
proaches completion. says the Lopdo,
Post. More than thirty years has this
treasure house Of the language been
in building.
Many Of the first enthusiasts have
passed away. DR.. Furnivall and Pro.
lessor Skeat among them, but the
master builder, Sir James Murray
abides still at the task, his natural
strength undated. 1t would seem, not.
withstanding his seventy-six years
Summer and winter he rises at six
o'clock in the morning and works at
the dictionary the day through.
In the preparation Of the first Sec
ton of volume x (Ti-Tombac), which
has just been published, Sir James
worked ninety hours week for three
months. The history Of ito" with tbe
infinitive alone cost two months Of
toll. .-. w. ra
Asked as to the probable date Of
completion of the dictionary, Sir
James had an answer which gave him
obvious pleasure.
Il have got to the stage when can
estimate the end" he said. I'm all
probability the dictionary will be fin.
ished on my eightieth birthday, four
years from now. My colleagues, DR..
Bradley and DR.. Craigie, are busy with
81 and I have penetrated into the
second half of IT, which expect to
complete in two years. BY that time
the three of us will be at liberty for
the last six letters Of the alphabet.
AT first we calculated that the die
tionary would run into eight volumes.
That calculation was made on the ba.
sis of existing dictionaries, Johnson's
and, in particular, Webster's; but we
were not long in finding that there
had been a tendency, either from the
pressure of the publisher or a natural
WEAKNESS to hurry the work in its
latter parts. Ten volumes came even
to be narrow limits for the way in
which we planned to treat every word.
small and great"
Asked about special difficulties anu
problems which have arisen in the
course of his labors, Sir James had
much to say. He referred to that elu.
sive class OF words whose parentage
cannot be traced; they defy the tele-
scope of the photographer.
whenever we write down 'etymol-
ogy unknown 1t means that days and
weeks of study have been spent with.
out other result. Every conjecture
made as to the possible origin has
been carefully tested and abandoned
before we write that final epitaph Of
failure"
Sir James spirit Of devotion to the
building of the dictionary impresses
every visitor to his garden at Oxford.
While he impatiently suffers the mere
interrupter,t Sir James pays a warm
tribute to correspondents In Britain
and in many parts of the world who
are helping on the work. He made
special reference to the librarians OF
the library of congress at Washington
and of the Boston Athenaeum for turn
ing up and copying passages from
American books not in English public
libraries. There are a hundred others
to whom. he said, the thanks of him
self and his colleagues were due. TO
all these the completion of the Oxford
dictionary will be great festival,
memorable in the annals of literature.