World first historical thesaurus to be published after 45 years' work

from the article,

Professor Kay, of Glasgow University's English Language department, said: "One of the best things about the project was working with so many different people over the years. It would be great to see some of them again."

Most of the contributors were students and academics who worked on a particular section, she said.

However, she noted: "There was a core of people like myself who worked more or less their entire working lives on it."

Her favourite words include "spangheu" – meaning "to cause a frog or toad to fly in the air", and derived from a 19th century rural pastime – "clumperton" (1534) and "loblolly" (1604), both used to describe a lazy or stupid person.

Prof Kay said the book, to be published in two volumes by the Oxford University Press, would enable researchers to chart the development of words and ideas across centuries and geographical places.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/5879924/World-first-historical-thesaurus-to-be-published-after-45-years-work.html