PianoCharged OP t1_ja3z08a wrote on February 26, 2023 at 5:53 PM

Reply to comment by Reinventing_Wheels in TIL Tolkien assisted on the Oxford Dictionary's first edition, focused on 'W' words waggle to warlock. He "learned more in those two years than in any other"; and certain etymologies continued to puzzle him for years, with many pages of notes written later on 'walrus' for a lecture at Leeds by PianoCharged

I think the first edition took a long time to assemble. I seem to recall one of the articles I was reading last night mention that the project started in the 1890’s

quokka70 t1_ja4oh7e wrote on February 26, 2023 at 8:40 PM

"Work began on the dictionary in 1857..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_English_Dictionary