The Age of Authority
The 18th century demanded rigor, expertise, and empirically grounded confidence.
No English writer provided these more effectively than Samuel Johnson—a more learned, capable, and thoughtful lexicographer than any who preceded him. Everything changed in 1755.
There followed the inevitable epigones, abridgers, and plagiaries, along with a few who worked to fill the gaps Johnson had left, especially in pronunciation and the treatment of synonyms. But Johnson’s Dictionary was “the dictionary” until Noah Webster and the OED came on the scene in the 19th century.
BUDDING GREAT CHAM
Robert Sayer, engraver. Portrait of Samuel Johnson, after a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Printed by James Watson. 1770.
Those who know anything about dictionaries often say that Samuel Johnson wrote the first one. How, then, to account for all the dictionaries we’ve already seen? In fact English had plenty of dictionaries, but no standard or authoritative dictionary.
In 1746, a group of publishers asked the overeducated but undercredentialed Johnson to do what took the French Academy’s 40 “immortels” 40 years. Johnson said he’d do it in three: “Forty times forty is sixteen hundred. As three to sixteen hundred, so is the proportion of an Englishman to a Frenchman.”
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 32
BEATING THE ALPHABET
Samuel Johnson. The Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language; Addressed to the Right Honourable Philip Dormer, Earl of Chesterfield. London: Printed for J. & P. Knapton et al., 1747.
The Plan, the first systematic statement of lexicographic principles in English, repays careful reading even now. Johnson shows that, even as he began his labors, he grasped many of the knottiest problems in lexicography.
One purpose of the Plan was to raise money. The publishers’ generous advance of £1,575 wouldn’t support Johnson through the whole project. In the 18th century, publishing projects like this depended on the patronage of the wealthy: rich nobles supported impecunious authors in exchange for flattering dedications. In seeking support, Johnson addressed the Plan to Lord Chesterfield.
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 32
INDIGNITY AND PENURY
Charles William Sharpe after Edward Matthew Ward. Doctor Johnson in the Ante-Room of the Lord Chesterfield Waiting for an Audience, 1748. Painted 1845, etched 1853.
Fawning didn’t come easily to the fiercely proud Johnson, who loathed the thought of accepting help. But with no other way to support himself, he did what he had to do: he asked for Chesterfield’s patronage.
It didn’t go well: Chesterfield neglected him, and Johnson was forced to go it alone. This is a fanciful Victorian recreation of an important incident: Johnson is ignored by a social superior but intellectual inferior, as other worthies are disregarded while fashionable fools dominate His Lordship’s attention.
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 34
THE “PATRON” DISCLAIMED
Samuel Johnson, letter to Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, 7 February 1755.
Transcript in an unknown 18th-century hand, laid in a first edition alongside contemporaneous cuttings.
When Chesterfield realized that Johnson’s forthcoming Dictionary would be a masterpiece, he belatedly wanted to share in the glory. He tried to charm the lexicographer with a flattering review. Johnson was unmoved: “I have sailed a long and painful voyage round the world of the English language,” he growled. “Does he now send out two cock-boats to tow me into the harbour?” This indignant letter has been called “the Magna Carta of the modern author, the public announcement that the days of courtly letters were at last ended.”
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 34
BEATING FORTY FRENCHMEN
Samuel Johnson. A Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. London: Printed by W. Strahan for J. & P. Knapton et al., 1755.
Johnson’s monumental Dictionary marks an epoch in English lexicography—an achievement unlike anything that came before. His 43,000 headwords were supported by 115,000 quotations from great writers. The first great “splitter” in English defining, Johnson revealed subtle shades of meaning with numbered senses and extensive treatment of phrasal verbs (take in, take off, take on, take over, take to, take up). His preface is a remarkable document, the best account ever written about the challenges in marshaling the English vocabulary.
Ex coll. Jack Lynch. HHD no. 35
LAURELS APLENTY
Review of Johnson’s Dictionary. The Gentleman’s Magazine, April 1755.
Johnson’s Dictionary was an event—its publication was news, earning notices in all the major periodicals in London and across the Continent. The few carpers were drowned out by vast numbers who praised it as the dictionary the nation had been waiting for. The most gratifying review came from Johnson’s friend and former student, David Garrick, whose celebratory poem on the Dictionary ends:
And Johnson, well arm’d like a hero of yore,
Has beat forty French, and will beat forty more!
Ex coll. Jack Lynch. HHD no. 35
SEVERELY ABSTRACTED
Samuel Johnson. A Dictionary of the English Language . . . Abstracted from the Folio Edition. 2 vols. London: J. Knapton et al., 1756.
Although Johnson’s huge Dictionary was a scholarly triumph, it was a commercial flop. Few bought it—no surprise, since its £4 10s. cost was 15% of a typical family’s annual wages. Hence the publishers tried the expedient of “abstracting” two huge folios into two compact octavos by omitting the quotations. Selling at a 90% discount, the abridgment paid off with vigorous and lasting sales. Johnson’s booksellers were the first to learn an important lesson: flagship dictionaries lose money. Even today the OED and Webster’s Third earn significant prestige, but The Concise Oxford and Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate keep the lights on.
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 37
THE REALM’S RECOGNITION
Tom Phillips, engraver. Fifty-pence coin commemorating Johnson’s Dictionary. 2005.
Parian porcelain bust of Samuel Johnson. 1900.
After musing “the proportion of an Englishman to a Frenchman,” Johnson was competing with the national academies of Europe. His Dictionary was a national accomplishment. Exactly 250 years after the Dictionary was published, the nation paid him back by minting a 50p coin showing Johnson’s etymology of fifty and his definition of pence. The coin is part of a series of commemorative 50p pieces celebrating British triumphs, including the suffragette movement, the D-Day invasions, and Roger Bannister’s four-minute mile. Lexicography is often linked to national pride.
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 35
ANOTHER DEFINING PHYSICIAN
Nathan Bailey. An Universal Etymological English Dictionary. Joseph Nicol Scott ed. London: R. Ware et al., 1755. 16th ed.
Despite Johnson’s importance, his magnum opus didn’t put an end to competition. Posthumous editions of Bailey continued to appear for decades. This one, prepared by the physician Joseph Nicol Scott, shows real improvements on Bailey’s definitions. A curiosity: Scott replicates verbatim Johnson’s famously opaque definition of network: “any thing reticulated or decussated at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections.” In the few months between Johnson’s publication and his own, Scott was eagerly scouring Johnson’s Dictionary to swell his own.
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 36
AN EARLY LUMPER
James Buchanan. Linguæ Britannicæ Vera Pronunciatio: or, A New English Dictionary. London: A. Millar, 1757.
Buchanan sought to fill a void with a pocket-sized dictionary—smaller than Bailey and the abridged Johnson, “portable for the use of schools, and as a vade mecum for grown persons . . . either for the orthography, signification, accent, just quantities of the syllables, or proper pronunciation of a word.” An inveterate “lumper” of related definitions, Buchanan had an approach much different from Johnson, the great “splitter.”
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 38
PRIVACY, PLEASE
John Entick. The New Spelling Dictionary Teaching to Write and Pronounce the English Tongue with Ease and Propriety. London: Edward & Charles Dilly, 1770. 5th ed.
Entick is known in legal circles for successfully suing the British government for pillaging his house, thereby establishing a legal right of privacy. His New Spelling Dictionary complains that earlier lexicographers suffered from either “unnecessary prolixity” or “abstruse brevity.” His plan was to include on a single line the word, its part of speech, and its various meanings—so readers could, at a glance, see “every thing necessary for understanding, pronouncing and spelling.” This may be the only extant copy of the fifth edition.
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 40
SERIOUS AND INNOVATIVE
Ann Fisher. An Accurate New Spelling Dictionary, and Expositor of the English Language. London: Printed for the author and sold by Hawes et al., 1773. 2d ed.
Ann Fisher married a printer, Thomas Slack, and together they published the Newcastle Chronicle. She issued a series of educational books, including a grammar and An Accurate New Spelling Dictionary—the first English dictionary by a woman. Her preface shows her to be a serious and innovative lexicographer, acutely aware of both theoretical and practical challenges. Of the first edition of 1771, no copies are known to survive. This second edition of 1773 is apparently unique—and it’s the earliest known copy of her dictionary.
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 41
DOING IT BACKWARD
J[ohn] Walker. A Dictionary of the English Language, Answering at Once the Purposes of Rhyming, Spelling, and Pronouncing. On a Plan Not Hitherto Attempted. London: T. Becket, 1775.
Johnson’s friend John Walker wrote a dictionary on “a plan not hitherto attempted.” And what was that? Given that “in other dictionaries words follow each other in an alphabetical order according to the letters they begin with, in this they follow each other according to the letters they end with.” And why would anyone do such a thing? Alphabetizing from back to front shines light on phonology (shared endings can indicate rhymes) and morphology (how words are made from smaller units). Though a worthy experiment, the method never caught on.
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 47
AN APPARITION?
John Bentick. The Spelling and Explanatory Dictionary of the English Language. London: Printed for Thomas Carnan, 1786.
Was the Rev. John Bentick a real person or the invention of his canny publisher? Alston’s bibliography of English dictionaries questions authorial authenticity in the index: “BENTICK, John. [Fictitious?]” Whatever the answer to that mystery, his book was real enough to become a royal gift. This copy of Bentick is inscribed to a friend by the Duke of Clarence, the future King William IV, as he commanded the warship Valiant.
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 49
PIOZZI’S PRONUNCIAMENTOS
Hester Lynch Piozzi. British Synonymy; or, An Attempt at Regulating the Choice of Words in Familiar Conversation. 2 vols. London: G.G. & J. Robinson, 1794.
Johnson’s friend Hester Piozzi—better known by her earlier name, Hester Thrale—offers a series of mini-essays, each a few pages long, exploring subtle shades of meaning in clusters of similar words. We have loud, noisy, clamorous, turbulent, stormy, vehement, and blustering, for instance, and insanity, melancholy, phrenzy, madness, and distraction. With a bit of whimsy, Piozzi explains how and when each is used. A more famous synonymist, Peter Mark Roget, made good use of Piozzi’s book.
Ex coll. Karolyne & Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 51