The introduction of the term 'Received Pronunciation' is usually credited to Daniel Jones. In the first edition of the English Pronouncing Dictionary (1917), he named the accent "Public School Pronunciation", but for the second edition in 1926, he wrote, "In what follows I call it Received Pronunciation (abbreviation RP), for want of a better term."[10] However, the term had actually been used much earlier by Alexander Ellis in 1869[11] and P. S. Du Ponceau in 1818[12] (the term used by Henry C. K. Wyld in 1927 was "received standard"[13]). According to Fowler's Modern English Usage (1965), the correct term is "'the Received Pronunciation'. The word 'received' conveys its original meaning of 'accepted' or 'approved', as in 'received wisdom'."[14]
RP is often believed to be based on the accents of southern England, but it actually has most in common with the Early Modern English dialects of the East Midlands. This was the most populated and most prosperous area of England during the 14th and 15th centuries. By the end of the 15th century, "Standard English" was established in the City of London.[15] A mixture of London speech with elements from East Midlands, Middlesex, and Essex became what is now known as Received Pronunciation.[16] By the 1970s, an estimated 3% of British people were RP speakers.[5]