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A Dictionary of the English Language

A Dictionary of the English Language
Title page from the second edition of the Dictionary
AuthorSamuel Johnson
CountryGreat Britain
LanguageEnglish
SubjectDictionary
Publisherconsortium
Publication date
15 April 1755
Pages2348[1]
TextA Dictionary of the English Language at Wikisource

A Dictionary of the English Language, sometimes published as Johnson's Dictionary, was published on 15 April 1755 and written by Samuel Johnson.[2] It is among the most influential dictionaries in the history of the English language.

There was dissatisfaction with the dictionaries of the period, so in June 1746 a group of London booksellers contracted Johnson to write a dictionary for the sum of 1,500 guineas (£1,575), equivalent to about £310,000 in 2024.[3] Johnson took seven years to complete the work, although he had claimed he could finish it in three. He did so single-handedly, with only clerical assistance to copy the illustrative quotations that he had marked in books. Johnson produced several revised editions during his life.

Until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary 173 years later, Johnson's was viewed as the pre-eminent English dictionary[citation needed]. According to Walter Jackson Bate, the Dictionary "easily ranks as one of the greatest single achievements of scholarship, and probably the greatest ever performed by one individual who laboured under anything like the disadvantages in a comparable length of time".[4]

  1. ^ A Dictionary of the English Language, 1755, archive.org
  2. ^ Advertisement in Derby Mercury 4 April 1755, page 4 'This day is published a Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson'
  3. ^ UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  4. ^ Bate, Walter Jackson. Samuel Johnson, Ch. 15, "Storming the Main Gate: The Dictionary". New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975.

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