The Dictionary People by Sarah Ogilvie

The Dictionary People by Sarah Ogilvie
UK Publication: September 2023
Reviewed by: Book Worm
Rating: [★★★]

This ARC was provided by Random House UK (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review.

A must read for all the word nerds out there!

Synopsis from Goodreads: A history and celebration of the many far-flung volunteers who helped define the English language, word by word

The Oxford English Dictionary is one of mankind’s greatest achievements, and yet, curiously, its creators are almost never considered. Who were the people behind this unprecedented book? As Sarah Ogilvie reveals, they include three murderers, a collector of pornography, the daughter of Karl Marx, a president of Yale, a radical suffragette, a vicar who was later found dead in the cupboard of his chapel, an inventor of the first American subway, a female anti-slavery activist in Philadelphia . . . and thousands of others.

Of deep transgenerational and broad appeal, a thrilling literary detective story that, for the first time, unravels the mystery of the endlessly fascinating contributors the world over who, for over seventy years, helped to codify the way we read and write and speak. It was the greatest crowdsourcing endeavor in human history, the Wikipedia of its time.

The Dictionary People is a celebration of words, language, and people, whose eccentricities and obsessions, triumphs, and failures enriched the English language.

My Thoughts: From the start it is obvious that the author has a passion for words and research and the ability to turn what is essentially a Encyclopaedia of the contributors to the OED into an interesting read.

Organised alphabetically (would you believe) this explores those who contributed to the OED from Archaeologists to Zealots.

It is fascinating to see the famous names of their day who contributed as well as the ordinary people around the world who volunteered and made this ambitious project possible. Also fascinating were the words themselves when they came into being and how they were used and defined.

Who would like this? This will appeal to all word nerds out there, however I will say I had to read this with a break between chapters as sometimes the sheer volume of names and word could become overwhelming.

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