A Dictionary of the English Language: In which the Words are deduced from their Originals and Illustrated in their Different Significations by Examples of the Language and An English Grammar. 2 vols. ...

This is a rare or used book from the Berkelouw Rare Books Department.

London: Printed by W. Strahan for J. and P. Knapton et al. 1755 (facsimile edition. London: The Folio Society 2006). Thick large folio. Orig. half speckled calf over marbled paper boards with matching edges. A particularly fine handsome set printed throughout in double-column with title-pages in red/black ink. The Folio Society facsimile of the first Edition is limited to 1000 numbered copies only. Mint preserved in its orig. slip case. NOTE: Johnson's Dictionary is the benchmark against which all lexicographic works are still judged. While Johnson defined a lexicographer as 'a writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge that busies himself in tracing the original and detailing the signification of words' Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) became the most renowned of English lexicographers. A great poet essay writer biographer lexicographer and critic of English literature he was often melancholy and financially straitened his intellectual work bringing little financial reward. American lexicographer Noah Webster acknowledges that 'Johnson's writings had in philology the effect which Newton's discoveries had in mathematics'. Johnson introduced lexicographic principles that were new to mid-eighteenth-century England though widely accepted in Europe. He codified the spelling of English words describing their meaning lucidly and illustrating these meanings with examples from a range of respected authors. His entertaining style is exemplified by his definition of oats: 'a grain which in England is generally given to horses but in Scotland appears to support the people'.