Do you use “OK” in your everyday speech? I do, and even President Obama uses it in his speeches and public remarks. In Okay: The Improbable Story of America’s Greatest Word, author Allan Metcalf presents the origin of the word, its forms and meaning, and influence. One book for one word. Think about researching this same information for all the words of the English language. Essentially that’s what was done in the making of the Oxford English Dictionary, as I learned in The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester. It is an amazing story and begins with a murder.
After the recent Tucson tragedy, it is quite topical. It is the story of a man, whom today we would say suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, who shot and killed another man. The killer, Dr. Minor, was a 37-year-old American from New Haven, Connecticut who had served as a surgeon in the Civil War. The murder occurred in 1871 in London as the victim (a married man of soon-to-be-seven children) was walking to work at a large brewery. There were three or four shots that rang out, and the victim suffered mortal injury. Found not guilty by reason of insanity, Dr. Minor was assigned to a British Asylum for the Criminally Insane.
The ensuing story tells of the making of the Oxford English Dictionary, and the significant contribution that the incarcerated Dr. Minor--educated, cultured, and mentally ill--made to its success. As you can imagine, it was a massive undertaking. Upon completion in 1928, it consisted of almost 415,000 words, almost 2 million illustrative quotations, and 12 volumes. Besides specifying meaning and pronunciation of words, it also contains each word’s history. Today, the OED is undergoing its first major revision.
If you are fascinated by words, a wordsmith, or simply enjoy reading, pick up The Professor and the Madman for an informative read.
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