The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. THE MAIN DATES :  1857 – a work on the dictionary began  it started to be published under the name A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles  the title The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) was first used unofficially on the covers  the full dictionary was republished in ten bound volumes  it fully replaced the name in all occurrences to The Oxford English Dictionary (OED)  the first electronic version of the dictionary was made available.  the second edition was published in twenty volumes  the online version has been available

Richard Chenevix Trench Frederick Furnivall Herbert Coleridge Being dissatisfied with the current English dictionaries, in June 1857, they formed an "Unregistered Words Committee" to search for unlisted and undefined words lacking in current dictionaries.

 Richard Chenevix Trench played the key role in the project's first months, but Herbert Coleridge became the first editor.  On 12 May 1860, Coleridge's dictionary plan was published. In April 1861, the group published the first sample pages; later that month, Coleridge died, Frederick Furnivall became an editor.  In the 1870s James Murray accepted the post of editor. In the late 1870s, Furnivall and Murray met with several publishers about publishing the dictionary. In 1878, Oxford University Press agreed with Murray to proceed with the massive project; the agreement was formalized the following year. The dictionary project finally had a publisher 20 years after the idea was conceived. The dictionary was to be published as interval fascicles, with the final form in four 6,400-page volumes. They hoped to finish the project in ten years. James Murray

The first Dictionary fascicle was published on 1 February 1884 twenty-three years after Coleridge's sample pages. The full title was A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles; Founded Mainly on the Materials Collected by The Philological Society; the 352-page volume, words from A to Ant. The total sales were a disappointing 4,000 copies. By early 1894 a total of 11 fascicles had been published.

In 1933 Oxford had finally put the Dictionary to rest. However, the English language continued to change, and by the time 20 years had passed, the Dictionary was outdated. There were three possible ways to update it:  to leave the existing work alone and simply compile a new supplement of perhaps one or two volumes;  the entire dictionary to be re-edited and retypeset, with each change included in its proper alphabetical place;  combining the new material with the existing supplement to form a larger replacement supplement.

In 29 years by which time the new supplement (OEDS) had grown to four volumes, starting with A, H, O and Sea. They were published in 1972, 1976, 1982, and 1986 respectively, bringing the complete dictionary to 16 volumes, or 17 counting the first supplement.

By that time it was clear that the full text of the Dictionary would now need to be computerized. Preparation for this process began in 1983, and editorial work started the following year under the administrative direction of Timothy J. Benbow, with John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner as co-editors.

In 1971, the 13-volume OED was reprinted as a two-volume, Compact Edition, by photographically reducing each page to one-half its linear dimensions; each compact edition page held four OED1 pages in a four- up ("4-up") format. The Compact Edition included, in a small slip-case drawer, a magnifying glass to help in reading reduced type.

In 1991 the compact edition format was re-sized to one-third of original linear dimensions, a nine-up ("9-up") format requiring greater magnification, but allowing publication of a single-volume dictionary. It was accompanied by a magnifying glass as before. The 'Oxford Compact English Dictionary', edited by Della Thompson and published in 1996, is a single-volume edition.

The Oxford English Dictionary Third Edition, or OED3, is intended as a nearly complete overhaul of the work. Each word is being examined and revised to improve the accuracy of the definitions, derivations, pronunciations, and historical quotations. The result is expected to double the overall length of the text. The style of the dictionary will also change slightly. The original text was more literary, in that most of the quotations were taken from novels, plays, and other literary sources. The new edition, however, will reference all manner of printed resources, such as cookbooks, wills, technical manuals, specialist journals, and rock lyrics. The pace of inclusion of new words has been increased to the rate of about 4,000 a year. The estimated date of completion is 2037.