The Oxford English Dictionary is one of the most popular dictionaries in the world, but the initial plans took a lot longer than anticipated. It was decided by members of the Philological Society of London that the existing dictionaries were not complete enough, and an agreement was made with the Oxford University Press in 1879 to begin work on what is now known as the Oxford English Dictionary.
The plan was to create a 6,400-page compilation of all vocabulary, with a projected timeframe of ten years. James A.H. Murray, who led the project, realized it would take much longer than planned when, after five years of work with his colleagues, they had only gotten up to the word “ant”. It took over forty years to complete the dictionary, with Murray overseeing an entire team on the project.
Unfortunately, Murray didn’t live to see the final result of his work. He died in 1915, over thirty years after he first started working on the project. The first version of the Oxford English Dictionary was released in April 1928, with over 400,000 words spanning over ten volumes. After its release, work immediately began on the next edition.