Compiling a major dictionary, like the building of the pyramids, is a task that takes time. The monumental first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was begun during the reign of Queen Victoria, and the work continued for 70 years through ten volumes and 15,487 folio-size pages that included all the "common words" written in English since about the time of Alfred the Great.
No sooner had the last volume been issued in 1928 than the editors conscientiously began to work on a one-volume supplement, which was published in 1933. Now they are beavering away on a four-part, 50,000-entry supplement to the...
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