Editor-in-Chief of The Oxford English Dictionary, he has been variously described as the ' master lexicographer of our generation ' and ' the custodian of the English language '. He prefers to see himself as a marshaller of words, ' the study of which has turned out to be the central intellectual passion of my life'. The publication of the fourth volume of his life's work, the supplement to The Oxford English Dictionary, is due in 1985. It will stand at two million words, and will have taken nearly 30 years to complete.