On April 15, 1755, Samuel Johnson published his two-volume Dictionary of the English Language. It wasn't the first English dictionary[->0] (more than 20 had appeared over the preceding two centuries), but in many ways it was the most remarkable. Unsuccessful as a schoolmaster in his hometown of Lichfield, Staffordshire (the few students he had were put off by his "oddities of manner and uncouth gesticulations"--most likely the effects of Tourette syndrome), Johnson moved to London in 1737 to make a living as an author and editor (Bate 162). After a decade spent writing for magazines and struggling with debt, he accepted an invitation from bookseller Robert Dodsley to compile a definitive dictionary of the English language. Dodsley solicited the patronage of the Earl of Chesterfield[->1], offered to publicize the dictionary in his various periodicals, and agreed to pay Johnson the considerable sum of 1,500 guineas in installments (Bate 164).In his "Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language," published in August 1747, Johnson announced his ambition to rationalize spellings[->2], trace etymologies[->3], offer guidance on pronunciation[->4], and "preserve the purity, and ascertain the meaning of our English idiom[->5] (Bate 167)." Preservation and standardization were primary goals: "One great end of this undertaking," Johnson wrote, "is to fix the English language."In other European countries around this time, dictionaries had been assembled by large committees. The 40 "immortals" who made up the Académie française took 55 years to produce their French Dictionnaire. The Florentine Accademia della Crusca labored 30 years on its Vocabolario. In contrast, working with just six assistants (and never more than four at a time), Johnson completed his dictionary in about eight years (Bate168).Weighing in at roughly 20 pounds, the first edition of Johnson's Dictionary ran to 2,300 pages and contained 42,773 entries. Extravagantly priced at 4 pounds, 10 shillings, it sold only a few thousand copies in its first decade (Bate 171). Far more successful was the 10-shilling abridged version published in 1756, which was superseded in the 1790s by a best-selling "miniature" version (the equivalent of a modern paperback). Johnson's most significant innovation was to include quotations[->6] (well over 100,000 of them from more than 500 authors) to illustrate the words he defined as well as provide tidbits of wisdom along the way. Textual accuracy, it appears, was never a major concern: if a quotation lacked felicity or didn't quite serve Johnson's purpose, he'd alter it (Bate 175).The most commonly cited definitions in Johnson's Dictionary tend to be quirky and polysyllabic: rust is defined as "the red desquamation of old iron"; cough is "a convulsion of the lungs, vellicated by some sharp serosity"; network is "any thing reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections." In truth, many of Johnson's definitions are admirably straightforward and succinct. Rant, for instance, is defined as "high sounding language unsupported by dignity of thought," and hope is "an expectation indulged with pleasure."Though Johnson omitted certain words for reasons of propriety, he did admit a number of "vulgar phrases," including bum, fart, piss, and turd. (When Johnson was complimented by two ladies for having left out "naughty" words, he is alleged to have replied, "What, my dears! Then you have been looking for them?") He also provided a delightful selection of verbal curios (such as belly-god, "one who makes a god of his belly," and amatorculist, "a little insignificant lover") as well as insults, including fopdoodle ("a fool; an insignificant wretch"), bedpresser ("a heavy lazy fellow"), and pricklouse ("a word of contempt for a tailor") (Bate 181).Johnson didn't hesitate to pass judgment on words he considered socially unacceptable. On his list of barbarisms[->7] were such familiar words as budge, con, gambler, ignoramus, shabby, trait, and volunteer (used as a verb) (Bate 182). Not surprisingly, some of the words in Johnson's Dictionary have undergone a change in meaning since the 18th century (Bate 182). For example, in Johnson's time a cruise was a small cup, a high-flier was someone who "carries his opinions to extravagance," a recipe was a medical prescription, and a urinator was "a diver; one who searches under water."His early aspirations reflected "the dreams of a poet doomed at last to wake a lexicographer." But of course Samuel Johnson was more than a dictionary maker; he was, as Bate noted, a writer and editor of the first rank. Nonetheless, Johnson's Dictionary stands as an enduring achievement. "More than any other dictionary," Bate says, "it abounds with stories, arcane information, home truths, snippets of trivia, and lost myths. It is, in short, a treasure house."

[->0] - http://grammar.about.com/od/words/a/earlydiction.htm
[->1] - http://grammar.about.com/od/classicessays/a/Lettertosonessay.htm
[->2] - http://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/spellingterm.htm
[->3] - http://grammar.about.com/od/e/g/etymologyterm.htm
[->4] - http://grammar.about.com/od/pq/g/pronunciaterm.htm
[->5] - http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/idiomterm.htm
[->6] - http://grammar.about.com/od/pq/g/quoterm.htm
[->7] - http://grammar.about.com/od/ab/g/barbarismterm.htm