Showing 31-40 of 40 entries
“History of English”
Old English in the OED
Old English (or Anglo-Saxon, as it is sometimes called) is the term used to refer to the oldest recorded stage of the English language, i.e. from the earliest evidence in…
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Old English—an overview
Old English is the name given to the earliest recorded stage of the English language, up to approximately 1150AD (when the Middle English period is generally taken to have begun)….
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Nineteenth-century English—an overview
For many people the nineteenth century was a time of profound and accelerated change, one in which, as the poet and writer Thomas Arnold remarked, it seemed possible to live…
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Middle English–an overview
Further reading on Middle English Simon Horobin and Jeremy Smith, An Introduction to Middle English (2002) Roger Lass, ‘Phonology and morphology’, in Norman Blake, ed. The Cambridge History of the…
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Grammar in early modern English
This article provides a selection of the main grammatical differences between early modern and late modern English; many more can be found within the OED entries for individual words. Where…
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‘Fly in the ointment’? Assessing the influence of the King James Bible (1611)
Please note: several of the following links to dictionary content require subscriber access to the OED Online. What is the influence of the King James Bible (1611) on the English…
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Early modern English pronunciation and spelling
In the late-fifteenth century printers began printing books written in the form of London English which had already become a kind of standard in manuscript documents. Between 1475 and about…
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Early modern English – an overview
Fresh perspectives: Old English and new science Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) began to be studied during this period. Manuscripts were collected and Old English texts published. The first Old English…
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The OED and its cousins
People quite often ask whether there are dictionaries like the OED for other languages. There certainly are. Dictionaries akin to the OED exist for several major world languages, and varieties…
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Tracking down tofu: library research in the US
Washington, DC, is rich in libraries. The Oxford English Dictionary employs two full-time library researchers on staff and one part-time freelancer there, assigned to the Library of Congress, the Folger…
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