English Literature / Unit 11 ENL 1019 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Johnson's Dictionary
Captions available
The idea
Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, of seventeen fifty-five, was compiled almost single-handedly and illustrated meanings with quotations from English writers. Some definitions are personal: "excise" is "a hateful tax," and "etch," "a country word, of which I know not the meaning."
In practice
Definitions by quotation; a few jokes.
Where people slip
The quotations made it a literary record.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
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