Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language

On researching the history of dictionaries, you will probably come across references of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language. First published in 1755, Johnson's work is one of the most famous and important English dictionaries in history. The dictionary took nine years to be compiled and lists 40,000 words, each defined in detail and illustrated with quotations covering every branch of learning.

It was an impressive achievement for the time: in comparison, the French Dictionnarre had taken 55 years to compile and required the dedication of 40 scholars (Johnson only had six helpers). The prestige of Johnson's dictionary survived throughout times: in 2005, a commemorative issue of the 50 pence coin was launched to celebrate its 250th anniversary. The occasion was also remembered by newspaper The Guardian, that published an article on Johnson's biography.

The commemorative coin from 2005 shows entries
from Johnson's dictionary for the words "Fifty" and "Pence".

Johnson’s work is considered the "first great English dictionary” and it is commonly pointed out as the first English dictionary in history. Jack Lynch, an Associate Professor of English at Rutgers and the editor of Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary: Selections from the 1755 Work That Defined the English Language (New York: Walker & Company, 2004) and A Guide to Samuel Johnson, discusses the matter on the article "Disgraced by Miscarriage: Four and a Half Centuries of Lexicographical Belligerence".

In the article, he points out that 663 dictionaries had already been published in England before Johnson published his work. “The first English book with dictionary in its title was The Dictionary of Syr Thomas Eliot Knyght, which appeared in 1538; it’s actually an English-Latin dictionary”, he writes, adding that “even if we limit our focus to what linguists call the general monolingual English dictionaries—the ones concerned with defining English words not confined to a single field—Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language is not the 664th English dictionary, but still the 21st".

In reality, the first general monolingual English dictionary is Robert Cawdrey’s Table Alphabeticall, published in 1604, almost 150 years before Samuel Johnson made his debut. But why has Johnson’s work been favored in relation to others?

The first page of Johnson's dictionary
(click to enlarge)

Two main characteristics of Johnson's work contributed to that fact. Johnson's dictionary was the first one to make an effort to standardize the spelling of the words, illustrating the meanings by literary quotation of authors like Shakespeare, Milton and Dryden. In addition, Johnson added notes on a word's usage rather than being simply descriptive, like Cawdrey.

But perhaps the main reason for Johnson's everlasting fame is the fact that, while everybody was busy trying to enlist exclusively the "hard words", Johnson opened his pages to words people actually used. And that created a new trend in lexicography and defined the future of dictionaries.

“Johnson’s real labor in the Dictionary was not including words like obumbrate but words like cat and hat and mat.”, writes Lynch. John Kersey's A New English Dictionary, from 1702, and Nathan Bailey's Universal Etymological English Dictionary, from 1721, were the first dictionaries to include common words (and were also the first ones to be written by professional lexicographers). But Johnson was the first author to do so in a systematic way, applying the same careful standards of definition to these words as to the so-called 'hard words'.

“After Johnson, English lexicography became increasingly concerned with the entire language in all its complexity. Johnson’s prodigious labor meant his was to become the first standard dictionary — the first to be authoritative, the first to settle arguments. No earlier English lexicographer achieved a comparable position in British culture. “, writes Lynch.

Johnson's status remains untouched to this date. It is possible to read poems about his work on this page, which is part of Johnson's Dictionary Online and whose author is working on a digital edition of Johnson's book. In The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page you can find a collection of his quotations - the page brings the information that Johnson is the second most quoted person in the English language, after Shakespeare.

The Dictionary of English Language might not have been the first English dictionary ever, but Samuel Johnson became the pop-star of lexicography for bringing the dictionaries closer to the reality of language use. And that is why he gets the highest “top of mind” when it comes to the history of dictionaries.