English Language - Dictionaries & History - English & American Literature : Medieval-18th Century - UVM Libraries Research Guides at UVM Libraries

Oxford English Dictionary

Oxford English Dictionary
Print: REF PE 1625 .O87 1989 (20 vols) and REF PE 1625 .O92 1993 (3 vols)
The "OED," originally called New English Dictionary on Historical Principles [REF PE 1625 .N53 1888, 10 vols], is the definitive guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, tracing the usage of words from across the English-speaking world through quotations from international English language sources. Its intention was to record every word used in English since 1150 and trace it back through all its shifting meanings, spellings and uses to its earliest recorded appearance, plus at least one citation for each century of its existence. As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from Dictionaries of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings. You’ll find present-day meanings in the OED, but also the history of individual words, and of the language.
The online version can be searched in a variety of ways: by word; phrase; definition; etymology; by author of the quotations which shows how the use of a word has changed over time. It is not exhaustive in its coverage of standard vocabulary and is limited in its treatment of slang, dialect, scientific, and technical terms, so other dictionaries should be used as well.

Dictionary of Old English: A to I This link opens in a new window
This resource, a work in progress, defines the vocabulary of the first six centuries (C.E. 600-1150) of the English language. It complements the Middle English Dictionary (C.E. 1100-1500) and the Oxford English Dictionary, which together provide a full description of the vocabulary of English.
Middle English Compendium This link opens in a new window
This resource provides access to and interconnectivity between the Middle English Dictionary (C.E. 1100-1500), Bibliography of Middle English (all the Middle English materials and editions cited in the Middle English Dictionary), and the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse (full-text digitized collection of Middle English texts in the public domain).

LEME: Lexicons of Early Modern English
This is a historical database of monolingual, bilingual, and polyglot dictionaries, lexical encyclopedias, hard-word glossaries, spelling lists, and lexically-valuable treatises surviving in print or manuscript from the Tudor, Stuart, Caroline, Commonwealth, and Restoration periods.

A Linguistic Atlas of Late Medieval English by A. McIntosh; M. K. Samuels; M. Benskin An important complement to The Middle English Dictionary for the localization of English from c. 1350 to c. 1450. Use with the accompanying guide, Catalogue of Sources for..., REF Z6605 .E5 L34 1993.
Call Number: REF QUARTO PE 1705 .M28 1986 (4 vols)
Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources
Call Number: REF PA 2891 .L28 (6 vols)
Records the continuing usage of classical and late Latin in the British Isles and by Britons abroad from Gildas (AD 540) to Camden (1600). Also incorporates lexical and syntactic elements from the vernacular languages spoken and written in Britain and from Greek, Celtic, Germanic, Romance, and Semitic.

Dictionary of the Scots Language (DSL)
DSL brings together the two major historical dictionaries of the Scots language:
A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (DOST) Older Scots - 12th century - 1700 and The Scottish National Dictionary (SND)
Modern Scots - 1700 - 2005.

The English Dialect Dictionary by Ed. by Joseph Wright
Call Number: REF PE 1766 .W8 (6 vols)
Publication Date: 1898-1905
"...being the complete vocabulary of all dialect words still in use, or known to have been in use during the last two hundred years; founded on the publications of the English dialect society and on a large amount of material never before printed."

Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue
Third edition of Francis Grose's 'Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue' first published in 1785. It is a dictionary of slang words. Grose was one of the first lexicographers to collect slang words from all corners of society. For a fuller description, see http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/dic/grose/vulgar1785.html
Green's Dictionary of Slang
This is the "OED" of slang, tracing the usage of slang terms over five centuries in all English-speaking regions of the world. Over 100,00 terms are defined, with each word authenticated by genuine and full-referenced citations of its use. Emphasis is on etymology.

Cambridge History of the English Language
Call Number: REF PE 1072 .C36 1992 (6 vols)
Provide a full and authoritative account of the history of the English language throughout the world, from its beginnings to the present. Lengthy essays are written by eminent scholars and conclude with suggestions for further reading. Each volume concludes with a glossary and bibliography.

A History of the English Language by N. F. Blake (Editor)
Call Number: PE 1075 .B45 1996 (3rd floor)
Provides a more succinct introduction to the English language.
The Origins and Development of the English Language by Thomas Pyles, John Algeo
Call Number: PE 1075 .P9 1982 (3rd floor)
The Dictionary Wars: the American fight over the English language by Peter Martin
Call Number: PE 1611 .M295 2019 (3rd floor)
Also available as an E-Book
(Please use our VPN client to access this resource remotely. Connect to VPN before clicking the E-book link.)

Early English Books Online - Corpora
From English-Corpora.org (Brigham Young University), the "open source" version of EEBO at this site contains 755 million words in 25,368 texts from the 1470s to the 1690s. See the frequency of words, phrases, and grammatical constructions in each decade from the 1470s-1690s. Comparison between decades: See what words, phrases, or collocates (nearby words) are more frequent in one historical period than another.