The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary

November 1, 2024 - The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary is a 2006 book by three editors of the Oxford English Dictionary, Peter Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall and Edmund Weiner. It examines J. R. R. Tolkien's brief period working as a lexicographer with the OED after World War I, traces his ...

An alphabetical pot-pourri follows: discussions of specific words that Tolkien revived (such as oliphaunt or mathom), used distinctively (elf, lockholes), coined from English matter (staggerment, smial), or wrongly thought he had coined (hobbit and, as it now emerges, orc); among many insights it is a pleasure to realise that the names of the two hobbits who find the Ring, Déagol and the Cain-like Sméagol, mean respectively ‘secretive’ and ‘inquisitive’. The book is rounded off with a brief, provisional comment on Tolkien’s on-going impact on the language. The authors have filleted their subject of some less digestible portions, a decision which might be welcomed by those who shiver at the thought of multi-volume dictionaries or fantasies, but which seems a trifle unfortunate in a book that deals with both.

October 11, 2021 - For all of the dis­cus­sion of Tolkien’s ency­clo­pe­dic tech­nique, no one seemed to note at the time that the author had, in fact, invent­ed for him­self (with apolo­gies to James Joyce) a new genre and way of writ­ing, a kind of ety­mo­log­i­cal fan­ta­sy, a kind of writ­ing he learned while work­ing on the Oxford Eng­lish Dic­tio­nary, that august cat­a­logue of the Eng­lish lan­guage which first appeared in full in 1928 — in ten vol­umes after fifty years of work.

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alphabetical sequence, as it does in Oxford Dictionaries · today, and have therefore described it in alphabetical order · by headword, except where there is good reason to do ... 4 Tolkien’s contribution was the preparation of a glossary, which appeared separately as A Middle English Vocabulary (1922) — his first

A description of J.R.R. Tolkien’s time working on the Oxford English Dictionary together with a detailed analysis of the evidence for his contribution to the entries for individual words.

5 days ago - He worked on the Oxford English Dictionary from 1918 and is credited with having worked on a number of words starting with the letter W, including walrus, over which he struggled mightily.

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Tolkien's first job, on returning home from World War I, was as an assistant on the staff of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Nevertheless, they have the potential to be a valuable resource, especially for understanding the specialist skills Tolkien brought to the dictionary as a scholar of Old English. One item is of particular biographical interest, as it suggests that Tolkien was carrying out work for the OED earlier than previously believed. Fletcher, Rachel A. (2020) "Tolkien's Work on the Oxford English Dictionary: Some New Evidence From Quotation Slips," Journal of Tolkien Research: Vol.

The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary is a book by O.E.D. editors Peter Gilliver, Edmund Weiner, and Jeremy Marshall, published as hardcover in 2006 by Oxford University Press and paperback in 2009.

A discussion with the authors of 'The Ring of Words', an exploration into Tolkien's work as a lexicographer for the Oxford English Dictionary.

Tolkien's first job, on returning home from World War I, was as an assistant on the staff of the OED. He later said that he had "learned more in those two years than in any other equal part of his life." The Ring of Words reveals how his professional work on the Oxford English Dictionary influenced Tolkien's creative use of language in his fictional world.

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October 7, 2025 - Tolkienian, a. Of or pertaining ... (OED), or New English Dictionary as it was called at its initiation, is the standard English dictionary....

Tolkien, with lordly exaggeration, replied 'I wrote the Oxford English DIctionary.' " Rayner Unwin, GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN: A REMEMBRANCER (Merlin Unwin Books, 1999), page 111).

January 15, 2023 - Tolkien’s most memorable work, on getting back from The Second Great War, was as an aide on the staff of the Oxford English Word reference. He later said that he had “learned more in those two years than in some other equivalent piece of his life.” The Ring of Words uncovers what his expert work […]