I was educated at Bedford Modern School in England, and at Hertford College, Oxford. While I was a student, I did some freelance work for the Oxford English Dictionary; after earning my doctorate, I became one of its assistant editors, working on etymologies; I continue to do consultancy work for the dictionary. I have taught at the University of Alberta since 1996.
I am writing a new history of dictionaries in the English-speaking world in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, which is under contract with Oxford University Press; I hope to complete the first volume in June 2020.