The dictionary is still under production. With the publication of the entries under I in September 2018, the entries for letters A-I of the 24-letter Old English alphabet have been published[1] (though since the dictionary has no entry for J and published the two entries for K at the same time as the I entries, it has technically covered A-K, and the next letter to be published will be L).[2]
The dictionary has made extensive use of digital technology, and is based on a corpus of at least one copy of every known surviving text written in Old English.[1]
History
Archived files of research materials from the creation of the Dictionary of Old English.
The dictionary was conceived in 1968 as a replacement for the Bosworth–Toller Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, which had been compiled at a time when both the study of the Old English language and lexicographical techniques were less advanced.[3] From the outset, the editors were interested in the potential application of computer technology to the task of compiling the dictionary, and in basing the dictionary text on a corpus. A dictionary plan was published in 1973.[4] It was originally anticipated that work on the dictionary would begin in 1976 and the dictionary would begin appearing in fascicles shortly thereafter.[3]
The first fascicle was not published until 1986, and covered words beginning with the letter D.[4] The letter G was reached in 2008.[4]As of March 2015[update] the entries for 8 of the 24 letters of the Old English alphabet, A-H were published, with over 60% of the total entries written.[5][6] The letter I was released in September 2018.[1]
The computerized corpus (old version) is available to download on request from the University of Oxford Text Archive, free for use in education and research:
1 2 Leyerle, John (1971). ""The Dictionary of Old English": A Progress Report". Computers and the Humanities. 5 (5): 279–283. doi:10.1007/BF02402209. S2CID62706149.
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