ANN ARBOR—An exhibit that celebrates the completion of the Middle English Dictionary (MED) is now on display in the Special Collections Library of the University of Michigan. “A Worlde of Wordes: Dictionaries and the Rise of Middle English Lexicography” focuses on the interest, curiosity, and anxiety concerning the right use and the right understanding of words that encouraged the making of glosses, glossaries, word-books, vocabularies, lexicons, and dictionaries which served as precursors of the MED.

Called “the greatest achievement in medieval scholarship in America,” the MED is a dictionary of extraordinary proportions, presenting a detailed coverage of the English language as it existed between A.D. 1100 and 1500.

Over 70 years in the making, activity began at the U-M in 1930, and culminates in
The exhibit focuses on the interest, curiosity, and anxiety concerning the right use and the right understanding of words that encouraged the making of glosses, glossaries, word-books, vocabularies, lexicons, and dictionaries which served as precursors of the MED.

Then the actual making of the MED is re-created through displays of the earliest wooden sorting board; original handwritten slips containing information about a word’s meanings, usage, and grammatical constructions; and books and manuscripts that served as sources for quotations revealing how a word was used during the medieval period. The process of production moves from the early days of manual and Selectric typewriters to the use of the computer and word-processing programs, finally incorporating SGML entries which allow simultaneous publication in print and in electronic form within the Middle English Compendium. Visitors can explore the electronic Middle English Dictionary on the computer, the last item in the exhibit.

The exhibit is located in the Special Collections Library on the seventh floor of the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library. Hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday. For more information, see the Web site http://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/SpecColl.lib/Dictinfo.htm or call the Special Collections Library at (734) 764-9377.
 

Middle English DictionaryMiddle English CompendiumHarlan Hatcher Graduate Libraryhttp://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/SpecColl.lib/Dictinfo.htm