The Meaning of Everything

The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary

By: Simon Winchester

Narrated by: Simon Winchester

From the best-selling author of The Professor and the Madman, The Map That Changed the World, and Krakatoa comes a truly wonderful celebration of the English language and of its unrivaled treasure house, the Oxford English Dictionary.

Writing with marvelous brio, Winchester first serves up a lightning history of the English language--""so vast, so sprawling, so wonderfully unwieldy""--and pays homage to the great dictionary makers, from ""the irredeemably famous"" Samuel Johnson to the ""short, pale, smug and boastful"" schoolmaster from New Hartford, Noah Webster. He then turns his unmatched talent for story-telling to the making of this most venerable of dictionaries. In this fast-paced narrative, the reader will discover lively portraits of such key figures as the brilliant but tubercular first editor Herbert Coleridge (grandson of the poet), the colorful, boisterous Frederick Furnivall (who left the project in a shambles), and James Augustus Henry Murray, who spent a half-century bringing the project to fruition. Winchester lovingly describes the nuts-and-bolts of dictionary making--how unexpectedly tricky the dictionary entry for marzipan was, or how fraternity turned out so much longer and monkey so much more ancient than anticipated--and how bondmaid was left out completely, its slips found lurking under a pile of books long after the B-volume had gone to press. We visit the ugly corrugated iron structure that Murray grandly dubbed the Scriptorium--the Scrippy or the Shed, as locals called it--and meet some of the legion of volunteers, from Fitzedward Hall, a bitter hermit obsessively devoted to the OED, to W. C. Minor, whose story is one of dangerous madness, ineluctable sadness, and ultimate redemption.

The Meaning of Everything is a scintillating account of the creation of the greatest monument ever erected to a living language. Simon Winchester's supple, vigorous prose illuminates this dauntingly ambitious project--a seventy-year odyssey to create the grandfather of all word-books, the world's unrivalled uber-dictionary.

©2003 Simon Winchester; (P)2003 HarperCollinsPublishers, Inc.

If you love words, you'll love this book- Fabulous

A very human story about defining the English language and the depth and breadth of the generational effort to bring it to completion (if such a thing is possible with so fluid a topic. ) Winchester is becoming my favorite author/narrator. He masters the topic, using so many fabulous words in recounting the events behind the monumental effort by many, many people to document the way we express ourselves and what it all means.

Fascinating story

I had never stopped to think about how a dictionary would be created. That insight as well as the characters involved made for an engaging story. Lovely narration, too.

Lovers of words

I loved this book. But I was an odd child who read the dictionary for fun. As always Mr Winchester tends to go down rabbit holes in his research but one can either skip those sections or learn more odd facts. I for one will read it again I’m sure

Wonderful listening

A bit shorter than Winchester's other books this one is none the less as informative and interesting as all of his other works. Mr. Winchester brings to life the personalities of the dedicated men that labored for an astounding number of years to produce what is, I believe, the greatest contribution to the recognition and importance of both the spoken and written word of the English speaking world, The Oxford English Dictionary.

Superb

This was a fascinating, informative, and delightful listen. It has prompted me to think differently about the English language and dictionaries in general. Winchester is a wonderful storyteller and narrator. Appropriate and enjoyable music bookended each chapter and the book as a whole. I’m actually quite depressed to be finished.