Sir James Murray
British lexicographer
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
The English language is not a square with definite sides containing its area; it is a circle ... nowhere bounded by any line called a circumference. It is a spot of colour on a damp surface, which shades away imperceptibly into the surrounding colourlessness.
—Sir James Murray, British lexicographer, Quoted in Bernadette Paton, New-Word Lexicography and the OED, 1995
Posted on June 13, 2000 at 3:43 PM
WORDS ABOUT WORDS
I am not a literary man...I am a man of science, and I am interested in that branch of Anthropology which deals with the history of human speech.
—Sir James Murray, British lexicographer, Caught in the Web of Words
Posted on April 22, 2002 at 9:28 PM
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