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MURRAY, SIR JAMES AUGUSTUS HENRY (183...

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Originally appearing in Volume V19, Page 40 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MURRAY, See also:SIR See also:JAMES See also:AUGUSTUS See also:HENRY (1837– ) , See also:British lexicographer, was See also:born at Denholm, near See also:Hawick, See also:Roxburghshire, and after a See also:local elementary See also:education proceeded to See also:Edinburgh, and thence to the university of See also:London, where he graduated B.A. in 1873. Sir James Murray, who received honorary degrees from several See also:universities, both British and See also:foreign, was engaged in scholastic See also:work for See also:thirty years, from 1855 to 1885, chiefly at Hawick and See also:Mill See also:Hill. Daring this See also:time his reputation as a philologist was increasing, and he was assistant examiner in See also:English at the University of London from 1875 to 1879 and See also:president of the Philological Society of London from 1878 to 188o, and again from 1882 to 1884. It was in connexion with this society that he undertook the See also:chief work of his See also:life, the editing of the New English See also:Dictionary, based on materials collected by the society. These materials, which had accumulated since 1857, when the society first projected the publication of a dictionary on philological principles, amounted to an enormous quantity, of which an See also:idea may be formed from the fact that Dr FurnivalI sent in " some ton and three-quarters of materials which had accumulated under his roof." After negotiations extending over a considerable See also:period, the contracts between the society, the delegates of the See also:Clarendon See also:Press, and the editor, were signed on the 1st of See also:March 1879, and Murray began the examination and arrangement of the raw material, and the still more troublesome work of re-animating and maintaining the See also:enthusiasm of " readers." In 1885 he removed from Mill Hill to See also:Oxford, where his Scriptorium came to See also:rank among the institutions of the University See also:city. The first See also:volume of the dictionary was printed at the Clarendon Press, Oxford, in 1888. A full See also:account of its beginning and the manner of working up the materials will be found in Murray 's presidential address to the Philological Society in 1879, while reports of its progress are given in the addresses by himself and other presidents in subsequent years. In addition to his work as a philologist, Murray was a frequent contributor to the transactions of the various antiquarian and archaeological See also:societies of which he is a member; and he wrote the See also:article on the English See also:language for this See also:Encyclopaedia. In 1885 he received the honorary degree of M.A. from Balliol See also:College; he was an See also:original See also:fellow of the British See also:Academy, and in 1908 he was knighted.

End of Article: MURRAY, SIR JAMES AUGUSTUS HENRY (1837– )

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