From reading-slips to dictionary entry: examples
from my OED work on North American ethnonyms (tribal names)
Alan H. Hartley
These pages serve to illustrate the end-points of the complicated
process by which a reader's slips are reworked into a dictionary entry:
- The raw slips I produced
for the new word Otoe. (A
"new word" is a word without its own entry in the current edition of
the Dictionary.) The current revision of the OED began with the letter
M, so these citations come fairly early in the reading process. My aim
in the ethnonym work has been to read those sources most likely to be
productive of useful citations. The resulting citation-slips, as well
as my own suggestions for pronunciation, etymology and definition, are
reproduced here, much as they were sent to the OED's editors. (I have
included here only slips for primary sources I have seen myself;
additional secondary citations have been sent to the OED.) The format
of the slips should be self-explanatory.
- The sample entry as I have assembled it
from my slips. Note that Otoe
has now been published in OED Online as part of the current revision,
and that the OED's entry differs in several respects from my mock-up.
Two other mock-ups, both for entries not yet in the OED:
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Revised 14 September 2006