This comprehensive dictionary by one of our century's greatest language scholars provides a clear and brief account of the origins, history, and sense-development of more than 38,000 words.

This unique and celebrated biography describes how a largely self-educated boy from a small village in Scotland entered the world of scholarship and became the first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary and a great lexicographer. It also provides an absorbing account of how the dictionary was written, the personalities of the people working on it, and the endless difficulties that nearly led to the whole enterprise being abandoned.
"It is a magnificent story of a magnificent man, one of the finest biographies of the twentieth century, as its subject was one of the finest human...

"At what historical point did American English become different from British English? Burchfield tackles these and other questions in scholarly essays sure to intrigue anyone who loves words and language." - Publishers Weekly

Volume 5 of The Cambridge History of the English Language looks at the dialects of England since 1776, the historical development of English in the former Celtic-speaking countries of Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and at varieties of English in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the Caribbean and South Asia. This unique volume will be welcomed by all those interested in the spread of English around the world.