1. Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary

2.  Johnson’s ‘Dictionary of the English Language’ was published on 15 April 1755.  It contained more than 42,000 entries.  It tells us much about the society of this period (18 th century)  Johnson thought it would take him less that 3 years to compile; however, there were many distractions (social nature)

3. The simplicity of definitions was paramount. There needed to be clarity. Johnson’s concept of definitions stemmed from 3 sources: 1. Aristotle ‘who reasoned that definitions should state what words meant, rather than what they didn’t mean’. 2. ‘No definition should contain a word that was not to be found elsewhere in the lexicon’. It must be universal, clear, plain and short (Watts) 3. John Locke – some words cannot be defined unless an adequate context is provided. Sometimes it relies on reader experience e.g. Red = ‘the colour of blood’.

4.  Definitions included a touch of humour.  NB: We often state what something is like by saying what it isn’t i.e. cold = not hot. This is the case with Johnson’s dictionary.  His method of definition begins with etymology (brief)  Johnson’s knowledge of languages was strong. He understood Latin, Greek, French, Italian, a modest amount of Dutch and Spanish and a small amount of Hebrew.

5.  His most important innovation was his decision to include quotations to illustrate the words he defined (there are no pictorial illustrations). This was a great strength of the dictionary.  He used Shakespeare, poetry, drama, novels, the Bible, historians, politicians, philosophy etc.  Johnson even quotes himself (his works)

6.  Some quotes from Shakespeare, the Bible and his own writings were inaccurate suggesting that he did not have the relevant texts in front of him as he added it to the dictionary.  The quotations in the dictionary are clearly presented out of context.  Whilst working on the dictionary, Johnson published other works. His play ‘Irene’ was performed in 1749, but there was limited public enthusiasm.