Volume 1

A dictionary of the English language: in which the words are deduced from their originals, and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers. To which are prefixed, a history of the language, and an English grammar / by Samuel Johnson.

  • Samuel Johnson
Date:
1755
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dictionary of the English language: in which the words are deduced from their originals, and illustrated in their different significations by examples from the best writers. To which are prefixed, a history of the language, and an English grammar / by Samuel Johnson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    14/1176
    fhould find, or chance ihould offer it, in the boundlefs chaos of a living fpeech. My fearch, however, has been either fkilful or lucky ; for I have much augmented the vocabulary. As my dedgn was a dictionary > common ol* appellative, I have omitted all words which jjav^ relation to proper names; fuch as Arian, Socinian, Calvinifl, Bencdibhne, Mahome an, u av retained thofe of a more general nature, as Heathen, Pagan* Of the terms of art I have received fuch as could be found either in books of fcience or technical dictionaries; and have often inferted, from philofophical writers, words which are upporte pel aps only by a lingle authority, and which being not admitted into general ufe, ftand yet as can 1 a es o probationers, and muft depend for their adoption on the fuffrage of futurity. The words which our authours have introduced by their knowledge of foreign languages, or igno¬ rance of their own, by vanity or wantonnefs, by compliance with falhion, or luft of innovation, ave regiftred as they occurred, though commonly only to cenfure them, and warn othei s again t e 0 y of naturalizing ufelefs foreigners to the injury of the natives. I have not rejected any by deftgn, merely becaufe they were unneceffary or exuberant:; but have received thofe which by different writers have been differently formed, as vifcid, and vijcidity, vijcous, and vifcofity. > Compounded or double words I have feldom noted, except when they obtain a fignification different from that which the components have in their fimple date. Thus highwayman, woodman, and horjecvurjer, require an explication; but of thieflike or coachdriver no notice was needed, becaufe the primitives contain the meaning of the compounds. Words arbitrarily formed by a conftant and fettled analogy, like diminutive adjeClives in ijhy as greenifh, bluifh, adverbs in /y, as dully, openly, fubftantives in nefs, as vilenefs, faultinefs, were lefs diligently fought, and many fometimes have been omitted, when I had no authority that invited me to infert them ; not that they are not genuine and regular offsprings of Engli/h roots, but becaufe their relation to the primitive being always the fame, their dgnidcation cannot be midaken. The verbal nouns in ing, fuch as the keeping of the cajlle-, the leading of the army, are always negleCted, or placed only to illudrate the fenfe of the verb, except when they dgnify things as well as aCtions, and have therefore a plural number, as dwelling, living; or have an abfolute and abftraCt dgnidcation, as colouring, paintings learning. The participles are likewife omitted, unlefs, by dignifying rather qualities than a&ion, they take the nature of adjeCtives ; as a thinking man, a man of prudence ; a pacing horfe, a horde that can pace: thefe I have ventured to call participial adjettives. But neither are thefe always inferted, becaufe they are commonly to beunderdood, without any danger of midake, byconfulting the verb. Obfolete words are admitted, when they are found in authours not obfolete, or when they have any force or beauty that may deferve revival. As compodtion is one of the chief charaderidicks of a language, I have endeavoured to make dome reparation for the univerfal negligence of my predeceffors, by inferting great numbers of compounded words, as may be found under after, fore, new, night, fair, and many more. Thefe, numerous as they are, might be multiplied, but that ufe and curiodty are here fatisded, and the frame of our language and modes of our combination amply difcovered. Of dome forms of compodtion, fuch as that by which re is predxed to note repetition, and un to dg¬ nify contrariety or privation, all the examples cannot be accumulated, becaufe the ufe of thefe particles, if not wholly arbitrary, is fo little limited, that they are hourly affixed to new words as occadon requires, or is imagined to require them. There is another kind of compodtion more frequent in our language than perhaps in any other, from which arifes to foreigners the greateft difficulty. We modify the dgnidcation of many verbs by a particle fubjoined ; as to come off,\ to efcape by a fetch; to fall on, to attack; to fall off.\ to apodatize; to break off] to hop abruptly; to bear out, tojuftify; to fall in, to comply; to give over, toceafe; to fet off\ to embellifh ; to fet in, to begin a continual tenour ; to fet out, to begin a courfe or journey; to take offto copy ; with innumerable expreffions of the fame kind, of which fome appear wildly irregular, being fo far diftant from the fenfe of the dmple words, that no fagacity will be able to trace the ffeps by which they arrived at the prefent ufe. Thefe I have noted with great care; and though I cannot flatter inyfelf that the collection is complete, I believe I have fo far affifted the fludents of our language, that this kind of phrafeology will be no longer infuperable; and the combinations of verbs and particles, by chance omitted, will be eadly explained by comparifon with thole that may be found. Many words yet ftand fupported only by the name of Bailey, Ainfworth, Philips, or the contracted Ditt. for Diflionaries fubjoined: of thefe I am not always certain that they are read in any book but the works of lexicographers. Of fuch I have omitted many, becaufe I had never read them; and many I have inferted, becaufe they may perhaps exift, though they have efcaped my notice : they are, however. /