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Murray Scriptorium

@MurrayScript

A project to digitize and edit the papers of Sir James A. H. Murray, first chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary. Pilot phase funded by BA/Leverhulme.

murrayscriptorium.org
Joined July 2015
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John Stephen Farmer, a Victorian spiritualist, also wrote a seven-volume dictionary of slang. In 1891, he told Murray he was suing his dictionary’s printers for refusing to typeset certain obscene words that occurred under the letters C and F. (He lost.) murrayscriptorium.org/id/Let…
A portrait of Farmer from Nineteenth Century Miracles; or, Spirits and Their Work in Every Country of the Earth by Emma Hardinge Britten (1884). Credit: Archive.org.

ALT A portrait of Farmer from Nineteenth Century Miracles; or, Spirits and Their Work in Every Country of the Earth by Emma Hardinge Britten (1884). Credit: Archive.org.

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Happy birthday to us! MurrayScriptorium.org launched a year ago today. We don’t know whether there’s a technical word for a 1st anniversary, but here’s Murray writing exasperatedly to someone who wanted to know what a 700th anniversary should be called: murrayscriptorium.org/id/Let…
Murray and four assistants at work in the Scriptorium. Murray’s party hat may have been Photoshopped in.

ALT Murray and four assistants at work in the Scriptorium. Murray’s party hat may have been Photoshopped in.

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The 4th of July seems as good a day as any to note that in 1883 the poet James Russell Lowell sent Murray a reference to one of the earliest known uses of ‘American’ in English—from a poem by George Herbert published in 1633: murrayscriptorium.org/id/Let…
The title page of The Temple, Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations by George Herbert (second edition, also published in 1633). Source: Wikimedia Commons.

ALT The title page of The Temple, Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations by George Herbert (second edition, also published in 1633). Source: Wikimedia Commons.

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#OTD in 1840, Elizabeth Wordsworth, first Principal of @lmhoxford, was born. In 1907 she wrote that the @OED was ‘quite a fatal book to open, for one never looks up one word in it without straightway being attracted by several others!’ murrayscriptorium.org/id/Let…
Photograph of Elizabeth Wordsworth in an academic gown and Tudor bonnet, 1928. © National Portrait Gallery, London.

ALT Photograph of Elizabeth Wordsworth in an academic gown and Tudor bonnet, 1928. © National Portrait Gallery, London.

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In June 1908, the OED’s Reserve–Ribaldously fascicle was published… after two of the editors, Murray and Craigie, had got into a scrap about how to spell the word RHYME (sorry, RIME). murrayscriptorium.org/id/Let…
The first page of the preface to the Ree–Ribaldously section, of which Reserve–Ribaldously formed a part.

ALT The first page of the preface to the Ree–Ribaldously section, of which Reserve–Ribaldously formed a part.

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#OTD in 1928 the completion of the OED was celebrated with a banquet for 200 male guests in Goldsmiths’ Hall. A few women were invited to watch from a gallery—but not Ada Murray, widow of the chief editor. She wrote a poignant letter asking to attend. murrayscriptorium.org/id/Let…
An illustration of Goldsmiths’ Hall, 19th century, artist unknown. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

ALT An illustration of Goldsmiths’ Hall, 19th century, artist unknown. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

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Poet and novelist Thomas Hardy was born #OTD in Dorset in 1840. He would exchange several letters with James Murray about local words used in South West England, including one on EWELEASE, HOGLEASE, and COWLEASE: murrayscriptorium.org/id/Let…
Shepherd with His Flock*, painted by Jean-Victor Bertin c. 1820. Credit: National Gallery of Art. (*Probably not in Dorset.)

ALT Shepherd with His Flock*, painted by Jean-Victor Bertin c. 1820. Credit: National Gallery of Art. (*Probably not in Dorset.)

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Henry Bradley, co-editor of the OED, died 100 years ago today. Despite his keen intellect and meticulous scholarship, he was a deeply humble man. Here he is batting aside compliments about the Middle-English Dictionary he found time to revise on the side: murrayscriptorium.org/id/Let…
Photograph of a bespectacled Henry Bradley taken in 1917. © National Portrait Gallery, London

ALT Photograph of a bespectacled Henry Bradley taken in 1917. © National Portrait Gallery, London

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In May 1893 the OED’s Consignificant–Crouching fascicle was published. It included Murray’s observation that young people had begun to pronounce the noun CONTENT differently from their elders. Kids today, eh? murrayscriptorium.org/id/Let…
An advert for Ridge’s Food c. 1900, featuring four children in a wagon being chased by dogs while a woman holding a baby looks on. The actual content of Ridge’s Food is vague, but it seems to have been a kind of ground grain used to make porridge. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

ALT An advert for Ridge’s Food c. 1900, featuring four children in a wagon being chased by dogs while a woman holding a baby looks on. The actual content of Ridge’s Food is vague, but it seems to have been a kind of ground grain used to make porridge. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

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Following on from the last tweet, here’s more information on the OED’s use of quotations from literary sources: murrayscriptorium.org/commen…
An OED quotation slip for the word FLOOD on display in the Museum of Oxford University Press. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

ALT An OED quotation slip for the word FLOOD on display in the Museum of Oxford University Press. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

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