Do you speak Whiggish? The most recent edition of the Oxford English Dictionary does not, it appears - at least not fluently. The original OED, compiled in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, contained full entries for 'Whig' and its adjectival derivatives, denoting that group or tradition which had been one of the two main contending forces in British political life from the late 17th to at least the mid 19th century. The dictionary wisely refrained from attempting to specify in any detail what this tradition's informing principles were, beyond a certain attachment to liberty, parliamentary government and the Protestant succession to the English throne; the general bearing of the term was suggested by the observation that in political life it had largely been superseded by 'Liberal', though it could still be used occasionally 'to express adherence to moderate or antiquated Liberal principles'. The illustrative quotations reinforced this emphasis: 'The term Whig,' Lord John Russell said in the 1850s, 'has the convenience of expressing in one syllable what Conservative Liberal expresses in seven.'

LRB 21 July 2005 | PDF Download