Fred McDonald studied English Language and Literature as a mature student at Goldsmiths' College, London, followed by an MA in Old and Middle English at Kings College.She then joined Oxford University Press as assistant editor on the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, and also answered queries for the Oxford Word and Language Service (OWLS). Since leaving to become a freelance she has contributed, as lexicographer, etymologies editor, and occasionally managing editor, to more than twenty English dictionaries and language reference books, including the The New Penguin English Dictionary, and has broadcast on place names and other aspects of the English language. She is co-author of Questions of English, based on enquiries to OWLS, and of The Guinness Book of British Place Names.