Calling all contributors to Glasgow’s global first for English language

Published: 12 August 2009

After 45 years painstaking work, the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary is ready for publication and everyone who worked on the project is invited to attend the launch.

After 45 years painstaking work by the English Language department of the University of Glasgow, the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary is to be published this autumn. Professor Michael Samuels who instigated the work in 1964

The University plans to mark this momentous event with a launch party on 22 October 2009 and everyone who worked on the project is invited to attend.

The project, instigated by Professor Michael Samuels in 1964 and led since his retirement by Professor Christian Kay, is the culmination of hundreds of thousands of hours work collecting data, firstly on paper slips and latterly on computer, by hundreds of research assistants, postgraduate students, university staff and volunteers.

It is those dedicated employees who the University is most keen to trace to attend the launch and see for themselves the finished result of their work.

Professor Christian Kay said: "One of the best things about the project was working with so many different people over the years. It would be great to see some of them again."

The Historical Thesaurus will become the first ever produced for any language in the world, containing almost every word in English from Old English to the present day. The impact of the new thesaurus will reach far beyond the study of language offering fresh perspectives to scholars in many other fields including anthropology, history and culture. Professor Christian Kay (standing) and research assistant Lorna Gilmour

The completed work contains nearly 800,000 meanings, organised into more than 236,000 categories and subcategories and collected together in two substantial volumes.

Contributors who would like to attend the launch party for the Historical Thesaurus should send their details to Professor Christian Kay on c.kay@englang.arts.gla.ac.uk

The Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary is published on 22 October by the Oxford University Press.

Full details of the Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, including sample pages, are available here: http://www.oup.com/online/ht/

Further information:
Professor Christian Kay, Honorary Professor English Language
University of Glasgow Tel: 0141 330 4150

Martin Shannon, Media Relations Officer
University of Glasgow Tel: 0141 330 8593

First published: 12 August 2009

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