On April 15, 1755 Samuel Johnson published his book A Dictionary of the English Language. This would become popularly known as Johnson’s Dictionary and would be among the most influential dictionaries of the English language. For the next 173 years, Johnson’s Dictionary would be considered the pre-eminent English dictionary.
The origins of Johnson’s Dictionary started with a group of London booksellers who were dissatisfied with the dictionaries which were then currently available. They contracted Johnson to write a dictionary, a task which Johnson claimed would take him three years (it actually took him nine years). Johnson wrote the book single-handedly and used clerical assistance only to copy the quotations he had marked in books.
When asked about the value of his dictionary, Johnson is said to have given this answer:
“The value of a work must be estimated by its use. It is not enough that a dictionary delights the critic, unless at the same time it instructs the learners.”
The word “dictionary,” by the way, came into English as an adaptation of the Medieval Latin “dictionarium” meaning “‘a repertory of phrases or words (dictions).” Today “dictionary” is used to include any reference book which provides information from an alphabetically arranged list of topics. Thus we have not only language dictionaries, but law dictionaries, geographic dictionaries, bibliographic dictionaries, and so on. Just about every profession or academic discipline has its own specialized dictionaries. Dictionary writing is known as lexicography (a professional activity aiming at the production of dictionaries). Samuel Johnson defined a lexicographer as:
“a writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge that busies himself in tracing the original and detailing the signification of words.”
Johnson’s Dictionary was not the first English dictionary as more than 20 dictionaries had been published in the 150 prior to his dictionary. One of the earliest was a Latin-English wordbook compiled by Sir Thomas Elyot and published in 1538. Then in 1583 headmaster Richard Mulcaster compiled a list of about 8,000 commonly used words. Most of the early dictionaries did not really provide any definitions of words. The first attempt at providing actual definitions came in 1604 with Robert Cawdrey’s
Table Alphabetical which contained 2,449 words, none beginning with W, X, or Y.
There are a number of concerns which face all lexicographers, including Johnson. First, to what extend should the dictionary be prescriptive—that is, telling readers the proper usage of the word—as compared with descriptive—that is, simply describing the word, its pronunciations and meanings. Secondly, to what extent should the dictionary provide an etymology (a word history). Johnson’s Dictionary tended to be prescriptivist at times and his etymologies are considered poor by today’s standards.
Where do the words come from that lexicographers put in their dictionaries? Basically, there are three sources: (1) other dictionaries (which may result in complaints of plagiarism), (2) words heard in conversations, and (3) words used in literature and the media. Johnson, in putting together his dictionary, relied heavily on literature. To save time and money, he examined only books which had been published since 1586.
Johnson’s Dictionary had good reviews in important periodicals when it was first published. However, because of a rather hefty size (four volumes weighing 21 pounds with 43,500 words and 118,000 illustrative quotations) and an even heftier price (the equivalent of about $1,000 in today’s money) meant that its sales were not spectacular. Only a pension granted to him 1762 kept Johnson from abject poverty.
Realizing that his dictionary was expensive, Johnson brought out a second edition which was produced in 165 weekly parts, which each part being sold at only sixpence each. Simon Winchester, in his book The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary, reports:
“This did the trick; by the end of the century every educated household had, or had access to, the great book. So firmly established did it swiftly become that any request for ‘The Dictionary’ would bring forth Johnson and none other.”
While Samuel Johnson (shown above) is often referred to as Dr. Johnson, he only attended Pembroke College is Oxford for a year and left without graduating. In addition to being a lexicographer, he was also a poet, essayist, biographer, editor, and literary critic. He had Tourette syndrome which meant that he had odd gestures and nervous tics which were disconcerting to those who met him for the first time. He died in 1784 at the age of 75. His dictionary is available online.