The Spirit of Place: Five Rooms and the OED

The OED has seen many changes since the 1970s, when John Simpson joined the editorial staff of the dictionary. In this article, published soon after his retirement as Chief Editor, John looks back at how the dictionary has grown over the past four decades, reviewing briefly the dictionary’s principal milestones: the completion of the Supplement in 1986 and the publication of the Second Edition in 1989; planning for and editing the Third Edition (2000-) and the emergence of the OED Online. The unfolding story is recounted from the Editor’s Desk in each of the five offices John occupied, to the backdrop of the changing lexical and technological environment of the period.