Mutual Illumination: The Dictionary of Old English and the Ongoing Revision of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED3)

Abstract

In a volume of papers on the Dictionary of Old English (DOE), it will not seem out of place for the perspective of the new edition of the Oxford English Dictionary(OED3) to be represented, as both are major current projects in the historical lexicography of English which are now progressing simultaneously and often in close collaboration. The aim of this article is to illustrate how ongoing work on the DOE informs and complements work on OED3 and vice versa. Once both works have covered the whole range of the alphabet, together they will, on the one hand, make it possible to obtain a more up-to-date and comprehensive account of the Old English lexicon than was previously available and, on the other hand, relate that lexicon to the overall development of the English vocabulary from its pre-history to the present day, while the etymological coverage in OED3 will help to place it even more comprehensively in context. As the online preface states, the ultimate aim of DOE is to complement “the Middle English Dictionary (which covers the period C.E. 1100-1500) and the Oxford English Dictionary, the three together providing a full description of the vocabulary of English.”