# How do they write dictionaries??? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 7, 2000, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-write-dictionaries/40079 "2000-11-07T06:26:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2000, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-write-dictionaries/40079/1 "2000-11-07T06:26:19Z")
OK… I searched for this topic, but came up empty… So how do they write dictionaries? Do a bunch of guys just sit in a room thinking up as many words as they can, or what? How does the Oxford dictionary keep from being sued by Webster’s, or vice-versa, for copyright infringment?? ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2000, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-write-dictionaries/40079/2 "2000-11-07T06:40:31Z")
I’ll post the link before I read the rest of it, but the site for the [OED](http://www.oed.com/public/inside/history.htm) has a history and preparations section. To give you an idea of the flavour of the work: > [@](#): > > Five years down the road, when Murray and his colleagues had only reached as far as the word ‘ant’, they realized it was time to reconsider their schedule. ---
**Author:** ![Origato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b2d939/32.png) [@Origato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Origato)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2000, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-write-dictionaries/40079/3 "2000-11-07T06:48:13Z")
I suggest you investigate the life of Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) who produced a dictionary of the English language (by himself!) which was considered the standard for many years. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2000, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-write-dictionaries/40079/4 "2000-11-07T07:29:09Z")
A sublime book on the subject is _The Professor and the Madman_ by Simon Winchester. It’s about the gestation of the OED, but embraces a multitude of lexicogragphal subjects. It genuinely engages the reader in intercourse. Buy it from [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/006099486X/qid=973581275/sr=1-4/102-7154290-6504915). ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2000, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-write-dictionaries/40079/5 "2000-11-07T13:19:28Z")
Maybe I should rephrase the question. Let’s say that I decide to write “Astroboy’s Comprehensive and Gud Ultimate Compendium to American English”. How do I go about it? Do I sit down with a copy of Webster’s, Oxford, etc. and start riffling through picking words and writing my own definitions? Serious question! If a publishing house decided to write and publish a new dictionary, how do they go about avoiding plagerism charges? And how would they make sure they had all of the words (without using other, existing dictionaries as references)?? Any lawyers out there? ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2000, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-write-dictionaries/40079/6 "2000-11-07T13:20:32Z")
off topic, but I just noticed that I’m closing in on 100 posts! Woo hoo!! ---
**Author:** ![G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c67d28/32.png) [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2000, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-write-dictionaries/40079/7 "2000-11-07T13:56:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Astroboy14 \* > **Maybe I should rephrase the question. Let’s say that I decide to write “Astroboy’s Comprehensive and Gud Ultimate Compendium to American English”. How do I go about it? Do I sit down with a copy of Webster’s, Oxford, etc. and start riffling through picking words and writing my own definitions?** To research a dictionary, you don’t go to other dictionaries, you go to original sources (newspapers, books, TV transcripts – anywhere new words might be used). You can use other dictionaries as a check, but you wouldn’t use them for original research. FYI, most dictionaries are ongoing projects; new editions come along now and then. I think the recent _Encarta_ (a joint production of Microsoft and several publishing companies) was a completely new from-the-ground-up production, but, otherwise, most dictionaries are new, updated (or otherwise altered – added to or abridged) editions of older works from the same publishing house. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2000, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-write-dictionaries/40079/8 "2000-11-07T15:40:38Z")
Dictionaries are rarely one-person projects, especially nowadays (only Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster seem to have done it). I assume methods differ, but usually you start making lists of words and then try to come up with a definition for them. Since most dictionaries nowadays are ongoing, this usually involves writing down new words or new meanings for old words. ---
**Author:** ![lucwarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@lucwarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lucwarm)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2000, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-write-dictionaries/40079/9 "2000-11-07T17:37:36Z")
“Do I sit down with a copy of Webster’s, Oxford, etc. and start riffling through picking words and writing my own definitions?” Not if you don’t want to get caught in the infamous Webster’s copyright traps. Hey, if maps have a few fake streets; and “who’s who” has a few fake people; why not throw a few fake words into the dictionary 🙂 In fact, the phrase “the whole nine yards” started as a copyright trap in a book of phrases 🙂 (j/k) ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2000, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-write-dictionaries/40079/10 "2000-11-07T20:03:05Z")
If you compare the definitions in different dictionaries, you will find that they are exactly the same. At least the ones I use. There must be some common source from which all (or, anyway, many) dictionary compilers refer to. That is a good question and I’ve wondered about that common source too. By the way, Lucwarm, I’d be interested in a further entomology of “the whole nine yards.” That is a subject of another thread, and I’m sure there has been one, if I bother to search for it, but I was under the impression that it had something to do with yards of cloth in a boxcar. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2000, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-write-dictionaries/40079/11 "2000-11-07T21:07:46Z")
I second The Professor and the Madman. Its a good, little book and should clear up most of your questions. ---
**Author:** ![lucwarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@lucwarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lucwarm)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-write-dictionaries/40079/12 "2000-11-08T00:04:45Z")
getting a little off-topic, but I believe that there are as many explanations for “the whole nine yards” as stars in the sky . . . ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-write-dictionaries/40079/13 "2000-11-08T00:10:55Z")
**Cecil Adams** on [the whole nine yards.](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_252.html). There are about a dozen threads in Comments on Cecil’s Columns, too, if one is interested. ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-write-dictionaries/40079/14 "2000-11-08T02:40:28Z")
Thanks for the input all! FYI, I am NOT thinking of writing my own dictionary… not nearly that ambitious!! I was just curious, as a friend and I were discussing this after leafing through an idioms dictionary that one of our students had brought to class… some of the idioms we had never heard of, and we are both quite literate! Possibly “copyright traps”? Maybe… ---
**Author:** ![cheezit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@cheezit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cheezit)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-write-dictionaries/40079/15 "2000-11-08T04:19:39Z")
I always thought they wrote the dictionary by starting with the letter A. :D:D \<\\> ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2000, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-write-dictionaries/40079/16 "2000-11-08T05:36:22Z")
How to write a dictionary. 1 - Get a whole pile of written material. You could, for example, make a complete print out of all the posts on this board. 2 - Make a list of all the words from your material. Determine the root form of the words (ie _writer_, _writing_, and _written_ could all be combined as various forms of _write_.) Eliminate any words you don’t like (proper nouns, slang, obscenities, adverbs, etc). Alphabetize your list. 3 - Write a definition of each word on your list. You can only use words that appear on your list and no definition can contain the word it’s defining. 4 - Realize you’ve just spent five years performing a task that could have been accomplished by spending five bucks in a Waldenbooks.