The person who is cited in the Oxford English Dictionary using the most English words for the first time is Geoffrey Chaucer with 2004 words. This does not mean that he was necessarily the person who introduced a word into English, just that it is found for the first time in his extensive writings between 1374 and 1386. Here is a selection of some of these words.
| Absence | Accident | Add |
| Agree | Bagpipe | Bed-head |
| Blunder, to | Border | Box |
| Chant, to | Cholera | Chuck to |
| Cinnamon | Desk | Digestion |
| Dishonest | Dung-cart | Effect |
| Elixir | Examination | Femininity |
| Finally | Flute | Funeral |
| Galaxy | Gaze to | Glow to |
| Hernia | Horizon | Increase n. |
| Infect to | Ingot | Jolliness |
| Latitude | Laxative | Milksop |
| Miscarry, to | Nod, to | Notify |
| Obscure | Observe | Outrageous |
| Peregrine | Perpendicular | Persian |
| Princess | Resolve v. | Rumour |
| Scissors | Session | Snort v. |
| Superstitious | theatre | Trench |
| Universe | utility | Vacation |
| Yeal | Village | Vitriol |
| Vulgar | Wallet | Wildness |
Of course there are many that did not catch on, such as:
agreeability, besmottered, corrumpable, displeasant, horsely, jangleress, necessarious, rete, withinforth
Many of these words reflect the influence in England of French as the language of the ruling class for some 300 years and of Latin as the language of education and scholarship. However English was also open to other languages. For example here are some of Chaucer's words that come from Arabic:
almanac, nadir alkali, borax, tartar, satin, gipon, checkmate, damask.Shakespeare's new words Shakespeare word test Dr Johnson's Dictionary