I took a BA in Portuguese and Linguistics at Merton, then completed an MPhil and DPhil in Linguistics at Somerville and Trinity respectively, focusing on the Romance languages. Since 2021 I have worked as a lexicographer on the Oxford English Dictionary, based at Oxford University Press on Great Clarendon Street, although I’m currently on maternity leave.
‘Lexicographer’ frequently features on lists of possible careers for linguists, but it always seemed slightly unlikely to me. Of course, as a regular consulter of dictionaries, I knew that somewhere there must be experts writing and editing them, but the idea of becoming one seemed distant. Fortunately, in Oxford it turns out that the dictionary editors are not distant at all – in fact, there are quite a lot of us just across Walton Street.
I am forever grateful for the email that was circulated around the Faculty while I was an MPhil student, advertising a summer internship programme at the Oxford English Dictionary. My application was successful, and I spent an enjoyable few weeks working on the OED between MPhil and DPhil. It was then very fortunate that two rare vacancies for permanent positions were advertised just as I was finishing my studies in 2021.
I was delighted to be accepted, and started work towards the tail end of the pandemic, with limited access to the offices, which made for a slightly surreal experience. My fellow new starter and I were initially trained in the Research task, which consists of surveying the evidence for the historical use of each sense of a word, recording the earliest evidence (antedating), and finding either a typical modern example, or the latest example of an obsolete sense (postdating). From there we progressed to the New Words team, learning how to draft concise, clear, and accurate definitions of words, compounds, and phrases. Finally, we joined the Revision team, where I still work, which has responsibility for bringing existing dictionary entries up to date.
The first edition of the OED was published between the 1880s and 1920s, and a substantial proportion of that original text has never been updated. Work on the third edition – the first complete revision of the dictionary – has been going on since the 1990s, so it is quite a task. Updates are now published quarterly online on oed.com.
My work involves considering the full evidence for every sense of each entry (including identifying senses not already included in the dictionary), choosing appropriate illustrative quotations from across the recorded history of each sense (although not Old English or Middle English, which are covered by specialists – much to my relief!), reworking the structure of the entry, and redrafting definitions to make them clearer or otherwise more suitable for modern readers.
To complete this work, editors have access to a wide range of resources, including online databases of all kinds of texts, linguistic corpora, and physical libraries. Each editor has a target for completing a number of senses in a week, and for each sense, there is a series of steps to work through, such as consulting corpora, studying other dictionaries’ corresponding entries, searching through databases to gather evidence, recording bibliographic details, and redrafting definitions. The day-to-day work is methodical and independent, but there are also collaborative aspects: various teams work together on every entry, including the Etymology, Pronunciations, and Bibliography teams as well as Revision or New Words, and all of one’s work is reviewed by a peer and finalised by a senior colleague.
Although I sometimes notice my lack of formal education about the history of English, my background in Modern Languages and Linguistics has been hugely helpful in my work. From literary analysis and translation, I am used to identifying different shades of meaning – the lexicographic skill of sense disambiguation. And from linguistics, I am used to considering language from a somewhat detached viewpoint, rather than relying on my own intuitions, which is crucial when working with unfamiliar historical or technical senses. That’s not to mention some of the more specialist skills I brought from my academic studies, such as wrangling corpora for statistical evidence, analysing syntactic structures to determine the lexical category of a word in context, and using databases to get an overview of vast amounts of text. My knowledge of the history of Portuguese occasionally proves useful too – I am sometimes consulted by the Etymology team on Portuguese questions.
The work is extremely interesting for someone who loves obscure words and thrives on reading quantities of historical and modern texts every day, from poetry to religious tracts to old newspapers, not to mention novels, scientific papers, and social media posts, to name just a few possible sources. I have enjoyed taking on some new challenges as well, learning computational skills from a brief period in my department’s Data team, and project management skills while acting as Product Owner for a new language product being developed. I have also been able to continue my academic interest in linguistic corpora, attending several conferences covering this area in the last few years.
I really enjoy the wide range of work and the feeling of collaborating on a project that has been going on for well over a century. Contributing to such a famous and well-loved academic resource is very motivating, and I feel fortunate to work in an area that uses my linguistic skills and knowledge.
Working in an academic-ish role in Oxford means that I don’t feel a great separation from my university days, and I am lucky to stay in touch with people who are still part of the Modern Languages and Linguistics faculties. It’s exciting that the new Humanities building is so close to OUP – surely a great opportunity for collaboration. I enjoyed a brief visit to the new building a few months ago, to see the results of many years of planning. I have fond memories of being the overenthusiastic student representative on various committees where the prospect of a new building was discussed from 2012 onwards. On sunny days I enjoy passing Wellington Square and remembering happy Portuguese language classes that used to occasionally take place outside in Trinity Term – a refreshing change from squeezing into the Portuguese Centre. And when I pass St Peter’s or Wadham I always think of Portuguese literature tutorials and feel lucky to have spent so much time reading wonderful work and being encouraged and enlightened by my tutors. Studying Modern Languages and Linguistics has led to so many interesting opportunities, and I am very grateful.