Table of Contents
Introduction
On April 15, 1755, a two-volume work titled A Dictionary of the English Language appeared in London bookshops. Its author was Samuel Johnson, a 45-year-old writer who had spent the previous nine years in near-solitary labor, compiling approximately 42,773 entries that would define, illustrate, and organize the English vocabulary as no one had before. The result was not merely a useful reference book—it was a monumental literary and intellectual achievement that would remain the preeminent English dictionary for over 150 years and whose influence persists to this day.
Johnson's Dictionary was not the first English dictionary, nor the largest, but it was incomparably the best—in the depth of its definitions, the richness of its illustrative quotations, and the personality that shone through its pages. It established principles and methods that shaped the entire subsequent history of dictionary making in English and beyond.
Samuel Johnson: The Man Behind the Dictionary
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) was one of the most remarkable literary figures of the 18th century. Born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, to a bookseller father and an educated mother, Johnson grew up surrounded by books but plagued by poverty, physical ailments (he suffered from what is now thought to be Tourette syndrome, as well as partial blindness and hearing loss), and bouts of severe depression.
Johnson briefly attended Oxford University but was forced to leave without a degree due to lack of funds. He worked as a teacher, journalist, essayist, poet, and parliamentary reporter before achieving literary fame with his poem The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749) and his periodical essay series The Rambler (1750–1752). Despite his intellectual brilliance, he lived in financial insecurity for much of his life—the dictionary project was, among other things, a means of earning money.
Johnson's larger-than-life personality was immortalized by his friend and biographer James Boswell, whose Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) remains one of the greatest biographies in English literature. Boswell portrayed Johnson as a conversational genius: witty, opinionated, compassionate, and endlessly quotable. These same qualities—wit, strong opinions, deep learning, and a gift for expression—made Johnson uniquely suited to the task of defining words.
The Genesis of the Project
By the mid-18th century, educated Englishmen were acutely aware that English lacked a comprehensive dictionary comparable to those that existed for French, Italian, and other European languages. The Académie française had published its official dictionary in 1694; the Accademia della Crusca had published its Italian dictionary as early as 1612. English dictionaries existed, but they were limited in scope—most focused on "hard words" and left common vocabulary undefined.
In 1746, a group of prominent London booksellers (publishers, in modern terms) approached Johnson with a proposal to compile a comprehensive English dictionary. They offered him the sum of 1,575 guineas—approximately equivalent to $300,000 today—a substantial sum but one that had to cover nine years of work plus the salaries of his assistants. Johnson accepted, and in June 1746, he signed the contract that would define the next decade of his life.
Johnson initially estimated the project would take three years. When a friend pointed out that the Académie française had required forty scholars working for forty years to produce their dictionary, Johnson reportedly replied: "Let me see; forty times forty is sixteen hundred. As three to sixteen hundred, so is the proportion of an Englishman to a Frenchman." The project ultimately took nine years—longer than his estimate, but still a remarkable achievement for what was essentially a one-man operation.
The Plan of the Dictionary
In 1747, Johnson published The Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language, a detailed prospectus addressed to Lord Chesterfield (who had agreed to serve as the dictionary's patron). The Plan outlined Johnson's vision: a dictionary that would "fix" the English language by establishing correct spellings, defining words precisely, and illustrating usage through quotations from the best English writers.
Johnson initially shared the common 18th-century belief that language could and should be "fixed"—that a good dictionary could halt the natural processes of linguistic change and preserve English in an ideal state. By the time he finished the dictionary, however, he had come to a more realistic understanding. In his magnificent Preface, he acknowledged that language changes inevitably and that the lexicographer's role is to record rather than legislate.
"Those who have been persuaded to think well of my design, will require that it should fix our language, and put a stop to those alterations which time and chance have hitherto been suffered to make in it without opposition. With this consequence I will confess that I flattered myself for a while; but now begin to fear that I have indulged expectation which neither reason nor experience can justify."
The Making of the Dictionary
Johnson worked from a house at 17 Gough Square, London, where the garret served as his editorial workshop. He employed six assistants—five of them Scottish, as Boswell wryly noted—who helped with the mechanical work of copying quotations and organizing entries. But the intellectual labor of reading, selecting, defining, and illustrating was almost entirely Johnson's own.
His method was systematic and innovative. Johnson read widely in English literature, marking passages that illustrated particular words or senses. His assistants then copied these marked passages onto slips of paper, which were filed alphabetically. When Johnson came to write an entry, he had before him a collection of real examples of the word in use, from which he could construct his definition.
Johnson drew his quotations primarily from writers of the 16th and 17th centuries—Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden, Pope, Bacon, Locke—reflecting his belief that this was the golden age of English prose. He consciously avoided what he considered vulgar or ephemeral writing, giving his dictionary a distinctly literary character.
Revolutionary Innovations
Johnson's Dictionary introduced several innovations that transformed English lexicography:
Systematic Illustrative Quotations
While earlier dictionaries had occasionally included illustrative examples, Johnson was the first to make literary quotations a systematic and central feature of every entry. He included approximately 114,000 quotations in the dictionary, drawn from a canon of roughly 500 authors. These quotations didn't just illustrate meaning—they showed the word alive in the hands of great writers, giving the dictionary a literary richness that no previous work had achieved.
Multiple Sense Division
Johnson carefully distinguished and numbered the different senses of each word, recognizing that most common words carry multiple meanings. His entry for "take," for instance, included 113 distinct senses. This systematic polysemy treatment set a standard that all subsequent English dictionaries would follow.
Etymological Information
Johnson provided etymological information for each word, tracing its origins to Latin, Greek, French, or other sources. While many of his etymologies have been superseded by later scholarship, his inclusion of this information established etymology as a standard component of dictionary entries.
Grammar and Usage Notes
Johnson included a grammar of English as a preface and provided pronunciation guidance throughout the entries. His attention to how words function grammatically—noting parts of speech, irregular forms, and syntactic patterns—made the dictionary a more comprehensive language reference than any predecessor.
Famous and Witty Definitions
Johnson's definitions are often celebrated for their wit, personality, and occasional prejudice. While the vast majority of his 42,773 entries are models of precise, objective definition, a handful reveal the man behind the work:
- Lexicographer: "A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words."
- Oats: "A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people."
- Patron: "One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is paid with flattery." (A likely jab at Lord Chesterfield.)
- Pension: "An allowance made to any one without an equivalent. In England it is generally understood to mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country." (Johnson later accepted a pension himself.)
- Network: "Any thing reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections." (A definition so technical it became an example of how not to define a simple word.)
- Dull: "Not exhilarating; not delightful; as, to make dictionaries is dull work."
These playful entries have delighted readers for centuries, but they should not overshadow the extraordinary quality of Johnson's serious definitions. His ability to capture the essence of a word in a few precise phrases remains admirable even by modern standards.
Publication and Reception
The Dictionary was published on April 15, 1755, in two large folio volumes. It was immediately recognized as a masterwork. The Edinburgh Review praised it lavishly, and Johnson's reputation was transformed virtually overnight from struggling writer to national intellectual treasure. The University of Oxford awarded him an honorary Master of Arts degree, and he became widely known as "Dictionary Johnson."
The dictionary was reprinted multiple times, with Johnson producing a revised fourth edition in 1773 that incorporated corrections and additions. Abridged editions made the work accessible to a broader audience. For over a century, Johnson's Dictionary was the standard reference for the English language, consulted by writers, scholars, lawyers, and ordinary readers alike.
Lasting Influence on English Lexicography
Johnson's Dictionary established the template that all subsequent English dictionaries would follow. Its innovations—illustrative quotations, systematic sense division, etymological information, pronunciation guidance, and comprehensive coverage—became the expected components of a quality dictionary. Noah Webster's American Dictionary (1828) consciously engaged with Johnson's work, adopting some methods while challenging others. The Oxford English Dictionary took Johnson's use of historical quotations and expanded it into a comprehensive historical record of every English word.
Johnson also influenced how dictionaries handled the tension between prescriptivism and descriptivism. His mature understanding that language changes naturally, expressed so eloquently in his Preface, anticipated the descriptive approach that would come to dominate modern lexicography. His recognition that a dictionary should document language as it is, rather than legislate what it should be, was ahead of its time.
Beyond lexicography specifically, Johnson's Dictionary influenced the standardization of English spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. While he did not single-handedly fix English orthography, his dictionary served as an authoritative reference that promoted consistency and helped establish many of the conventions we follow today.
Johnson's Legacy Today
Johnson's house at 17 Gough Square, London, has been preserved as a museum where visitors can see the garret where the dictionary was compiled. The building is a pilgrimage site for bibliophiles, lexicographers, and lovers of the English language. Original copies of the dictionary are treasured by collectors and held by major libraries worldwide.
Johnson's Dictionary has been digitized and is available online, allowing modern readers to explore its entries and appreciate the extraordinary depth of learning and expression they contain. Scholars continue to study the dictionary as a window into 18th-century English vocabulary, literary culture, and intellectual life.
Most importantly, Johnson's legacy lives on in every dictionary we use today. Every time we look up a word and find a clear definition, illustrative examples, pronunciation guidance, and etymological information, we are benefiting from the model that Samuel Johnson established over 270 years ago. He remains the patron saint of lexicography—not a harmless drudge, but a brilliant architect of how we organize and understand our words.