In the late 19th Century, the Scottish lexicographer James Murray was given the job of compiling a “New English Dictionary on Historical Principles”. He worked on this project for 36 years from 1879 until his death in 1915, and his results were completed by others and published in 1928 as the “Oxford English Dictionary”. It contained 415,000 entries supported by nearly 2 million citations, and ran to over 15,000 pages in 12 volumes, and was immediately accepted as the definitive guide to the English language. Interestingly, this version used the American “-ize” ending for words such as characterize, itemize, etc, rather than the British practice (both then and now) of spelling them characterise, itemise, etc. Although supplements were issued in 1933 and 1972-6, it was not revised or added to until 1989, when the current (second) edition was published, listing over 615,000 words in 20 huge volumes, officially the world’s largest dictionary.