In 1879, the Philological Society handed over the editorship of the dictionary to Dr James Murray (1837-1915), a Scottish schoolmaster and amateur philologist, who worked at Mill Hill School in London. In March 1879, the society made a deal with Oxford University Press, which agreed to publish the work under the ungainly title, A New English Dictionary On Historical Principles Formed Mainly On The Materials Collected By The Philological Society And With The Assistance Of Many Scholars And Men Of Science.

In the spring of 1879, the slips which had previously been collected were delivered to Murray, who was shocked at their condition. Many were damp and crumbling and the writing had faded. Some were so illegible that Murray said that Chinese would have been more useful - since then he could have found a translator. There were also not enough slips dealing with common words. Murray complained, "Of Abusion, we found in slips about 50 instances: Of Abuse not five."

Murray's solution was to issue a fresh appeal to the public, in which he wrote, "Make as many quotations as you can for ordinary words, especially when they are used significantly, and tend by their context to explain or suggest their meaning."

Murray's Scriptorium

In the grounds of his Mill Hill school, Murray built a corrugated iron shed, which he called his Scriptorium (writing place). Its walls were lined with more than 1,000 pigeon holes for the quotation slips. Murray was helped by a small team of assistants, and by his 11 children, who were set to work as soon as they learned to read. His youngest son, Jowett, later described working in the "Scribby", as they called the Scriptorium:

"We received no pocket money as a matter of course, but had to earn it by sorting slips. Hours and hours of our childhood were spent in this useful occupation... We wanted money for Christmas or birthday presents, or to spend on our summer holidays, and the only way to get it was to sort slips... The work was not uninteresting if done for only an hour or two at a time. But when we wanted to earn a half crown or even five shillings in the space of a week, we had to work long hours."

Murray moved to Oxford in 1884, where he built a second Scriptorium. Such was the volume of letters that he received here that the Post Office built a special letter box for him in the street by his house. Letters simply needed to be addressed to "Murray, Oxford", to find their way to him!

In 1879, Murray estimated that the whole work of editing would take ten years to complete. Unfortunately, by 1884, when the first fascicle (unbound volume) was published, he had only got as far as the word 'ant'! He now believed that the work would take a further 12 years. In fact, it was not until 1928, 13 years after Murray's death, that the last fascicle was published. The whole work was then reissued in ten bound volumes. Murray himself was responsible for editing the volumes A-D, H-K, O-P and T.

From 1888, Murray was helped by Henry Bradley, a self-educated philologist from Manchester, who headed a second independent team. Bradley edited the volumes E-G, L-M, S-H, Sh and part of W. He was also responsible for the largest single entry in the book, the word "set". From 1901, a third staff worked under Dr William Craigie, joined by a fourth group, in 1914, under Dr CT Onions.

By the time the last volume was published, on April 19, 1928, the earliest volumes were already out of date, for many new words had entered the language. So, in 1933, a single volume Supplement was published, followed by a second Supplement, in four volumes, brought out between 1972 and 1986.

The first edition and subsequent supplements were amalgamated into the Second Edition of the O.E.D. in 1989.  The Third Edition (and first revision) of the O.E.D. is currently being produced.  Definitions of new words and revised entries are published online every quarter in the online edition of the O.E.D. at www.oed.com.