Dr. Johnson . Detail detail from a portrait of Dr Samuel Johnson by Joshua Reynolds.
Today April 15 cannot pass by without noting that this is the day that Johnson’s dictionary was published.
‘On April 15, 1755 the first great dictionary of English was published. Samuel Johnson’s giant Dictionary of the English Language was an audacious attempt to tame his unruly native tongue. In more than 42,000 carefully constructed entries, Johnson had mapped the contours of the language, combining huge erudition with a steely wit and remarkable clarity of thought’ (Hitchings, 2005, 1)
This was not the first English dictionary( see the British Library Dictionaries and Meanings). However, Johnson was the first to use the literary canonical heavyweights to support his definitions, a tradition that continued with the OED. This was a huge undertaking, almost unimaginable to me today so wedded to computers and the internet. To help with the copying, Johnson did employ, depending on his finances, up to six ‘amanuenses’- ‘a literary or artistic assistant, in particular one who takes dictation or copies manuscripts. ORIGIN early 17th cent.: Latin, from (servus) a manu ‘(slave) at hand(writing), secretary’ + -ensis ‘belonging to.’‘ (Mac Dictionary)
Johnson’s dictionary shows ‘an intricate portrait of language and social trends. The Dictionary testified to the growth of scientific thought, the influx of foreign influence and the moral and philosophical attitudes of the day. It is the historical record of an age.’ ( Read)
As Hitchings noted many of Johnson’s definitions ‘remind us that he was a poet..’succinct, accurate and elegant’
Particular favorite definitions of mine include the list below and this is where we began in class to day.. with these list of words and their denotations. The students listened to the denotations, felt the language ‘sounded different from today’s language’ but that it was ‘understandable but not quite of the same rhythm’ as one student claimed.
‘Imp‘ is ‘an imp is a puny devil’
‘Giglet’ is ‘a lascivious girl’
‘Conscience‘ is ‘the knowledge or faculty by which we judge of the goodness or wickedness of ourselves ‘
‘Tawdry’ is meanly showy; splendid without cost:fine without grace; showy without elegance’.
‘Bedpresser’ is a heavy lazy fellow’.
‘Witworm’ is ‘one that feeds on wit’.
‘Mushroom’ n.s.’ An upstart: a wretch risen from a dunghill’.
‘Nidget’ n.s. A coward:a dastard’
‘Higgeldy-piggeldy’ : A cant word corrupted from higgle, which denotes any confused mass, as higglers carry a huddle of provisions together’.
‘Dull’: Not exhilaterating (sic); not delightful; as, to make dictionaries is dull work.
‘Jobbernowl‘: Loggerhead; blockhead.
Below ‘beetleheaded’, perhaps not so common now as a disparaging term. Bring it back I say!
BEETLEHE’ADED: from Dr Johnson’s Dictionary, library Yale University
One version of a story concerning Johnson’s avoidance of ‘naughty’ words has Johnson responding to the woman who expressed her pleasure that his dictionary had avoided these, ’ No Madam, I hope I have not daubed my fingers. I find however that you have been looking for them.’ (Hitchings,p.130)
Other impressive facts I shared with the students:
There are 42,773 entries in Johnson’s dictionary which was compiled despite personal tragedy, financial anxiety and depression.
When Johnson completed the dictionary it weighed about 20 pounds.
Initially 2,000 copies were printed for a reading public estimated by Edmund Burke to be less than 100,000 (Hitchings, 196)
This dictionary was expensive to produce so the price, when it was published, was set at 4 pound 10 shillings.
Johnson used more than 500 authors to support his quotes.
Johnson came to see that English language cannot be fixed. Johnson writes: ‘When we see men grow old and die at a certain time one after another…we laugh at the elixir that promises to prolong life to a thousand years; and with equal justice may the lexicographer be derided, who being able to produce no example of a nation that has preserved their words and phrases from mutability, shall imagine that his dictionary can embalm his language, and secure it from corruption and decay.’
Go to the British Library for a great overview and for Dictionaries in general
Guide to Samuel Johnson, Jack Lynch
Go here to: A Johnson word a day project from Yale University and read about their copy of Johnson’s Dictionary ‘the Syned Gimbel copy’
We watched this short clip to get a flavour of the brilliance and complexity of Johnson’s achievement:
Better still is to watch the fascinating 59 minute BBC documentary:
And here are the students sharing the denotations after discovering a little about the amazing feat of the ‘harmless drudge’, the remarkable Dr. Johnson:
Here are the students sharing some of Johnson’s denotations:
Then take this quiz here: Guardian :Quiz Samuel Johnson
How many definitions does the active verb “To Take” have?
To TAKE (verb active) has 113 definitions.
According to Johnson’s definition, a “Lexicographer” is what?
Continue in this vein and enjoy a small quiz here at Johnson Dictionary online
Read more here about Johnson:
Hitchings, Dr. Jonson’s Dictionary: The book that changed the world (2005) Observer Review
Word Nerds 
This post completes an Old Grouch’s joy. Johnson is not only my personal hero; he is also someone with whom I identify and am never ashamed to plagiarize.
“I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding,” cry I to the perpetrators of the shallow piffle of the edubabble systems, approaches, schemes and methods on spelling.
“I dogmatize and am contradicted, and in this conflict of opinions and sentiments I find delight,” say I.
To the addicts of the servile instruction-following of the cognitive wet blanket of pedagoguery we proclaim:
“Sir, it is no matter what you teach them first, any more than what leg you shall put into your breeches first. Sir, you may stand disputing which is best to put in first, but in the mean time your breech is bare. Sir, while you are considering which of the two things you should teach your child first, another boy has learnt them both.”
Inspired by Johnson’s ringing denunciation of ‘patriotism’, I assert that it is the last refuge of the orthographic scoundrel to call a spelling that (s)he can’t explain an ‘exception’!
—–
We are the proud owners of one of only five known copies of the first edition of Johnson’s two-volume Dictionary of MDCCLXXXVII (1787 for those whose schooling has left them bereft of knowledge of the Roman numbering system). It has pride of place in the home of Real Spelling, where never a day passes without its being consulted at least once.
The Preface to the Dictionary is a masterpiece of lexicographic linguistics. Download a copy of its text from this link. And read it!
Click to access Preface%202011-a.pdf
Ann and her students are orthographic heroes; Johnson would have been proud of you. Above all, always follow Johnson’s statement that “language is the dress of thought”.
I love that statement “language is the dress of thought”! So glad you enjoyed the post mon ami. Might I suggest there is a faint resemblance between your good self and the harmless drudge in a shared intolerance of obtuse fools, ‘jobbernowls’ ‘nidgets’ and other blockheads!! O to become adept in the art of a well wrought insult!
Ann, Thank you so much for all of this information about Dr. Johnson! Fabulous!
It was fun compiling this Kathy. I’d been lucky enough to be in London earlier this year and what better way to get over a little jet lag than visit Dr. Johnson’s house in Gough Street ! His dictionary is a remarkable feat. If you have time watch the BBC Documentary- really well done and interesting.
This was a lovely observance, Ann. A couple of years ago, friends honoured me with a souvenir bookmark from the museum in Johnson’s birth home in Lichfield (a town his uncle described as being “equi-too-distant from Oxford and Cambridge, not distant enough from Birmingham”). The honour was that they had thought of me, a weakly ambitious word lover, in the context of this great fellow.
I can think of only another Samuel–Clemons–to have even approached Johnson’s endless quotability. A boldly vocal former partner of mine, who inspired greater boldness in myself, shared my first-ever Johnson quote that I have always treasured: “Don’t think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drives into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark.”
This is wonderful Skot; it’s a quotation from The Master that I was not aware of. I relish it, which is why I will now repeat it (and thus the dactylographic dance on the keyboard will fix it indelibly in my memory).
“Don’t think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drives into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark.”
I am happy to say that I came out and barked some considerable time ago, and have done so doggedly ever since.
My Dear Drudge,
You were certainly in my mind when I typed that quote (whose origin is unknown to me). Though I know they are unrelated historically, Johnson’s remark has always lent, for me, a positive connotation to the term “barking mad.”
And now, to em-bark on new word voyages!