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The Bizarre Origin of the Oxford English Dictionary
The Bizarre Origin of the Oxford English Dictionary
ratings:
Length:
43 minutes
Released:
Nov 8, 2018
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
With 600,000 words and 3 million quotations, the Oxford English Dictionary is a massive tome. Work began on the dictionary in 1857, but the first edition wasn't published until 1884. Compiling the dictionary was a Herculean task, and James Murray, the editor of the dictionary, put out a call for assistance. This early crowdsourcing strategy worked surprisingly well. Murray was particularly impressed by his most prolific and consistent contributor, an enigmatic fellow named Dr. W.C. Minor. So impressed, in fact, that Murray decided he had to meet the man in person. It's safe to say the meeting didn't go as expected. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers
Released:
Nov 8, 2018
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
When the Puritans Canceled Christmas: Nowadays Christmas is a globally-recognized holiday celebrated by millions of people, but in the past this wasn't the case. In fact, some groups of Christians detested the holiday, going so far as to ban it completely. So what led Puritans to ban one of t by Ridiculous History