Editorial

Over the past eighteen months, disruption has become routine. Talking about disruption even more so. But back before our lives were disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, management bestsellers were touting disruption as a good thing, creating opportunity for innovation, creativity, and renewal. I think we all could have done with rather less of that opportunity, which accompanied events that hurt many of us deeply. Nevertheless, volume 42 of Dictionaries will stand as a product of that disrupted time and as a testament to the creativity, resilience, determination, and generosity to be found among lexicographers and scholars of lexicography. Despite the closure of libraries and archives and the cancelation or restructuring of conferences, this issue presents the substantial final part of a history of the Dictionary Society of North America, two independent research articles, two themed forums that include five new papers and discussion, a Reference Work in Progress report, and four book reviews. I am honored to present these authors' work in my first issue as the journal's editor.

The issue has a decidedly historical twist. Nicholas Lo Vecchio's "Updating the OED on the Historical LGBTQ Lexicon" is a work of primary lexicography with particular attention to the multilingual context in which the semantic fields of sexuality and gender developed. Elizabeth Knowles continues her archival investigations into the history of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (see also Dictionaries 5 and 40.1), introducing us to the people and relationships responsible for the first edition. A Reference Work in Progress report by Charlotte Brewer and Stephen Turton describes the initial stages of development for a digital edition of James Murray's papers. While not a work of lexicography, it is certainly a work that lexicographers and historians will refer to and welcome. The past eighteen months have underscored the value of putting archival materials online, where more scholars can reach them.

The issue begins with the fourth and final part of Michael Adams' "The Dictionary Society of North America: A History of the Early Years." The earlier installments introduced (or reacquainted) the reader to the circumstances of the DSNA's founding (Part I in issue 35), its early leaders (Part II; 38), and its membership in the 1970s and 80s (Part III; 40.1). Part IV concentrates on the DSNA's tangible produce: the biennial meeting and publications. That includes the early history of Dictionaries, providing a timely source of inspiration and cautionary tales for the new editor. For certain readers, this history will provide a trip down memory lane, with peeks behind some organizational curtains along the way. For others (including me, who joined the society just as Adams' history closes), this substantial history lets us know just whose shoulders we're standing on and how much and how little the DSNA and lexicographical studies have changed in the past forty-odd years.

As Adams discusses, the DSNA initially published conference proceedings alongside the journal, but "performance, if not ambition, faltered." The problem was resolved by linking Dictionaries' mission to the publication of papers from the biennial meeting. Those biennial habits were disrupted this year, and the society's 23rd meeting took place as a webinar on June 4, 2021. To capitalize on both the much shorter time allowance (an afternoon, rather than several days) and the opportunity to welcome a more diverse audience, the conference consisted of panels designed to review the fitness of dictionaries and lexicography to 21st-century realities. We have delayed publication of this issue in order to publish works representing two of those online sessions. The Keynote Forum presents papers given by Kory Stamper and Bryan Garner on the implications of dictionaries' perceived and real authority, along with a lightly edited transcript of the surrounding live introduction and discussion, led and moderated by Lane Greene. While some may perceive Stamper and Garner as representing different "sides" regarding the lexicographer's relationship to prescriptivism, their perspectives on lexicographical authority take much the same path, focusing on the relationship between authority and expertise. With great authority comes great responsibility, and the interactions between varying perceptions of authority and responsibility are key to the second forum, "Dictionaries in...