author
Herbert Coleridge
1830–1861
A gifted young philologist, he became the first editor of the project that would grow into the Oxford English Dictionary. Though he died at just 30, his careful early work helped shape one of the English language’s great reference books.
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About the author
Born in Hampstead on 7 October 1830, Herbert Coleridge came from a remarkable literary family: he was the grandson of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the son of Sara Coleridge and Henry Nelson Coleridge. He studied at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, where he earned high honors and developed the scholarly habits that would define his short career.
Coleridge is best remembered as the first editor of the Philological Society’s proposed New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, the ambitious project that eventually became the Oxford English Dictionary. He also published A Dictionary of the First, or Oldest Words in the English Language, reflecting his deep interest in the history of English words and their earliest recorded uses.
His time on the dictionary project was brief. Coleridge died of tuberculosis on 23 April 1861, only two years after his appointment, but his early organizing work laid important groundwork for the vast undertaking that followed. His story is a striking reminder that even a short life can leave a lasting mark on how a language understands itself.