separate and unconnected, are now to be like-more particularly the creation, privileges, and wise examined as they are ranged in their va- rank of baronets; and whether, under the word rious relations to others by the rules of syntax barometer, instead of being satisfied with obor construction, to which I do not know that any serving that it is an instrument to discover the regard has been yet shown in English diction-weight of the air, it would be fit to spend a few aries, and in which the grammarians can give little assistance. The syntax of this language is too inconsistent to be reduced to rules, and can be only learned by the distinct consideration of particular words, as they are used by the best anthors. Thus, we say, according to the pre-readers, that the explications should be suffisent modes of speech, The soldier died of his wounds, and the sailor perished with hunger: and every man acquainted with our language would be offended by a change of these particles, which yet seem originally assigned by chance, there being no reason to be drawn from grammar why a man may not, with equal propriety, be said to die with a wound, or perish of hunger.

lines upon its invention, construction, and principles. It is not to be expected, that with the explanation of the one the herald should be satisfied, or the philosopher with that of the other; but since it will be required by common cient for common use, and since, without some attention to such demands, the Dictionary cannot become generally valuable, I have determined to consult the best writers for explanations real as well as verbal; and perhaps I may at last have reason to say, after one of the augmenters of Furetier, that my book is more learned than its author.

In explaining the general and popular lanOur syntax therefore is not to be taught by guage, it seems necessary to sort the several general rules, but by special precedents; and in senses of each word, and to exhibit first its naexamining whether Addison has been with jus-tural and primitive signification; as, tice accused of a solecism in this passage,

She loathes the watery glass wherein she gaz'd,
And shuns it still, although for thirst she die.

To arrive, to reach the shore in a voyage: he arrived at a safe harbour.

Then to give its consequential meaning, to arrive, to reach any place, whether by land or sea; as, he arrived at his country seat.

Then its metaphorical sense, to obtain any thing desired; as, he arrived at a peerage.

Then to mention any observation that arises from the comparison of one meaning with another; as it may be remarked of the word arrive, that, in consequence of its original and etymological sense, it cannot be properly applied but to words signifying something desirable: thus we say, without a mixture of irony, he arrived at say, a man arrived at happiness; but cannot

misery.

Then follows the accidental or consequential signification in which ground implies any thing that lies under another; as, he laid colours upon a rough ground. The silk had blue flowers on a red ground.

When the construction of a word is explained, it is necessary to pursue it through its train of phraseology, through those forms where it is used in a manner peculiar to our language, or the air or water. He swam till he reached Ground, the earth, generally as opposed to in senses not to be comprised in the general ex-ground. The bird fell to the ground. planations; as from the verb make arise these phrases, to make love, to make an end, to make way; as, he made way for his followers, the ship made way before the wind; to make a bed, to make merry, to make a mock, to make presents, to make a doubt, to make out an assertion, to make good a breach, to make good a cause, to make nothing of an attempt, to make lamentation, to make a merit, and many others which will occur in reading with that view, and which only their frequency hinders from being generally re

marked.

The great labour is yet to come, the labour of interpreting these words and phrases with brevity, fulness, and perspicuity; a task of which the extent and intricacy is sufficiently shown by the miscarriage of those who have generally attempted it. This difficulty is increased by the necessity of explaining the words in the same language, for there is often only one word for one idea; and though it be easy to translate the words bright, sweet, salt, bitter, into another language, it is not casy to explain them.

With regard to the interpretation, many other questions have required consideration. It was some time doubted whether it be necessary to explain the things implied by particular words; as under the term baronet, whether, instead of this explanation, a title of honour next in degree to that of baron, it would be better to mention

Then the remoter or metaphorical significa tion; as, the ground of his opinion was a false computation. The ground of his work was his father's manuscript.

figurative senses, it will be proper to subjoin the After having gone through the natural and from that which is in common use; as wanton, poetical sense of each word, where it differs applied to any thing of which the motion is irregular without terror; as,

In wanton ringlets curl'd her hair.

To the poetical sense may succeed the familiar; as of toast, used to imply the person whose health is drank; as,

The wise man's passion and the vain man's toast.
Pope.

lesque; as of mellow, applied to good fellowship:
The familiar may be followed by the bur-

In all thy humours, whether grave or mellow.

Or of bite, used for cheat:

--

Addison.

More a dupe than wit,
Sappho can tell you how this man was bit.-Pope.

m

And lastly, may be produced the peculiar | dental and adventitious, I shall endeavour to sense in which a word is found in any great author; as faculties, in Shakspeare, signifies the powers of authority:

-This Duncan Has borne his faculties so meek, has been So clear in his great office, that, &c. The signification of adjectives may be often ascertained by uniting them to substantives; as simple swain, simple sheep. Sometimes the sense of a substantive may be elucidated by the epithets annexed to it in good authors: as, the boundless ocean, the open lawns: and where such advantage can be gained by a short quotation, it is not to be omitted.

give an account of the means by which they were introduced. Thus, to eke out any thing, signifies to lengthen it beyond its just dimensions, by some low artifice; because the word eke was the usual refuge of our old writers, when they wanted a syllable. And buxom, which means only obedient, is now made, in familiar phrases, to stand for wanton; because in an ancient form of marriage, before the Reformation, the bride promised complaisance and obedience, in these terms; "I will be bonair and buxom in bed and at board."

I know well, my Lord, how trifling many of these remarks will appear separately considered, The difference of signification in words gene- and how easily they may give occasion to the rally accounted synonymous, ought to be care- contemptuous merriment of sportive idleness, fully observed; as in pride, haughtiness, arro- and the gloomy censures of arrogant stupidity; gance and the strict and critical meaning ought but dulness it is easy to despise, and laughter it to be distinguished from that which is loose and is easy to repay. I shall not be solicitous what popular; as in the word perfection, which, though is thought of my work by such as know not the in its philosophical and exact sense it can be of difficulty or importance of philological studies; little use among human beings, is often so much nor shall think those that have done nothing, degraded from its original signification, that the qualified to condemn me for doing little. It may academicians have inserted in their work, the not, however, be improper to remind them, that perfection of a language, and, with a little more no terrestrial greatness is more than an aggrelicentiousness, might have prevailed on them-gate of little things; and to inculcate, after the selves to have added the perfection of a dictionary. Arabian proverb, that drops, added to drops, conThere are many other characters of words stitute the ocean. which it will be of use to mention. Some have There remains yet to be considered the distriboth an active and passive signification; as fear-bution of words into their proper classes, or that ful, that which gives or which feels terror; a part of lexicography which is strictly critical. fearful prodigy, a fearful hare. Some have a personal, some a real meaning; as in opposition to old, we use the adjective young, of animated beings, and new of other things. Some are restrained to the sense of praise, and others to that of disapprobation; so commonly, though not always, we exhort to good actions, we instigate to ill; we animate, incite, and encourage indifferently to good or bad. So we usually ascribe good but impute evil; yet neither the use of these words, nor, perhaps, of any other in our licentious language is so established as not to be often reversed by the correctest writers. I shall therefore, since the rules of style, like those of law, arise from precedents often repeated, collect the testimonies on both sides, and endeavour to discover and promulgate the decrees of custom, who has so long possessed, whether by right or by usurpation, the sovereignty of words.

It is necessary likewise to explain many words by their opposition to others; for contraries are best seen when they stand together. Thus the verb, stand has one sense, as opposed to fall, and another as opposed to fly; for want of attending to which distinction, obvious as it is, the learned Dr. Bentley has squandered his criticism to no purpose, on these lines of Paradise Lost:

In heaps

Chariot and charioteer lay overturn'd,
And fiery foaming steeds. What stood, recoil'd,
O'erwearied, through the faint satanic host,
Defensive scarce, or with pale fear surpris'd,
Fled ignominious-

"Here," says the critic, "as the sentence is now read, we find that what stood, fled:" and therefore he proposes an alteration, which he might have spared if he had consulted a dictionary, and found that nothing more was affirmed than that those fled who did not fall.

In explaining such meanings as seem acci

cludes all words not appropriated to particular The popular part of the language, which insciences, admits of many distinctions and subdivisions; as, into words of general use, words employed chiefly in poetry, words obsolete, words which are admitted only by particular writers, yet not in themselves improper; words used only in burlesque writing; and words impure and barbarous.

Words of general use will be known by having no sign of particularity, and their various senses will be supported by authorities of all ages.

The words appropriated to poetry will be distinguished by some mark prefixed, or will be known by having no authorities but those of poets.

inserted but such as are to be found in authors Of antiquated or obsolete words, none will be who wrote since the accession of Elizabeth, from which we date the golden age of our language; and of these many might be omitted, but that the reader may require, with an appearance of reason, that no difficulty should be left unresolved in books which he finds himself invited to read, as confessed and established models of style. These will be likewise pointed out by some note of exclusion, but not of disgrace.

The words which are found only in particular books, will be known by the single name of him that has used them; but such will be omitted, unless either their propriety, elegance, or force, or the reputation of their authors, affords some extraordinary reason for their reception.

Words used in burlesque and familiar compositions, will be likewise mentioned with their proper authorities; such as dudgeon, from Butler, and leasing, from Prior; and will be diligently characterised by marks of distinction.

Barbarous or impure words and expressions

may be branded with some note of infamy, as | for scathe and buxom, now obsolete, Milton may they are carefully to be eradicated wherever be cited, they are found; and they occur too frequently even in the best writers; as in Pope,

-in endless error hurl'd.

'Tis these that early taint the female soul.

In Addison:

Attend to what a lesser muse incites.

And in Dryden :

A dreadful quiet felt, and worser far
Than arms-

If this part of the work can be well performed, it will be equivalent to the proposal made by Boileau to the academicians, that they should review all their polite writers, and correct such impurities as might be found in them, that their authority might not contribute, at any distant time, to the depravation of the language.

With regard to questions of purity or propriety, I was once in doubt whether I should not attribute too much to myself in attempting to decide them, and whether my province was to extend beyond the proposition of the question, and the display of the suffrages on each side; but I have been since determined, by your Lordship's opinion, to interpose my own judgment, and shall therefore endeavour to support what appears to me most consonant to grammar and reason. Ausonius thought that modesty forbad him to plead inability for a task to which Cæsar had judged him equal.

Cur me posse negem, posse quod ille putat? And I may hope, my Lord, that since you, whose authority in our language is so generally acknowledged, have commissioned me to declare my own opinion, I shall be considered as exercising a kind of vicarious jurisdiction, and that the power which might have been denied to my own claim, will be readily allowed me as the delegate of your Lordship.

-The mountain oak
Stands scathed to heaven.--
-He with broad sails
Winnow'd the buxom air-

By this method every word will have its history, and the reader will be informed of the gradual changes of the language and have before his eyes the rise of some words, and the fall of others. But observations so minute and accurate are to be desired, rather than expected; and if use be carefully supplied, curiosity inust sometimes bear its disappointments.

This, my Lord, is my idea of an English Dictionary; a dictionary by which the pronunciation of our language may be fixed, and its attainment facilitated; by which its purity may be preserved, its use ascertained, and its duration lengthened. And though, perhaps, to correct the language of nations by books of grammar, and amend their manners by discourses of morality, may be tasks equally difficult; yet, as it is unavoidable to wish, it is natural likewise to hope that your Lordship's patronage may not be wholly lost; that it may contribute to the preservation of ancient, and the improvement of modern writers; that it may promote the reformation of those translators, who, for want of understanding the characteristical difference of tongues, have formed a chaotic dialect of heterogeneous phrases; and awaken to the care of purer diction some men of genius, whose attention to argument makes them negligent of style, or whose rapid imagination, like the Peruvian torrents, when it brings down gold mingles it with sand.

When I survey the Plan which I have laid before you, I cannot, my Lord, but confess, that I am frighted at its extent, and, like the soldiers of Cæsar, look on Britain as a new world, which it is almost madness to invade. But I hope, that though I should not complete the conquest, I shall at least discover the coast, civilize part of the inhabitants, and make it easy for some other adventurer to proceed farther, to reduce them wholly to subjection, and settle them under laws.

In citing authorities, on which the credit of every part of this Work must depend, it will be proper to observe some obvious rules: such as of preferring writers of the first reputation to We are taught by the great Roman orator, those of an inferior rank; of noting the quota- that every man should propose to himself the tions with accuracy; and of selecting, when it highest degree of excellence, but that he may can be conveniently done, such sentences as, stop with honour at the second or third: though besides their immediate use, may give pleasure therefore my performance should fall below the or instruction, by conveying some elegance of excellence of other dictionaries, I may obtain, language, or some precept of prudence, or piety. at least, the praise of having endeavoured well; It has been asked, on some occasions, who nor shall I think it any reproach to my dili shall judge the judges? And since, with regard gence, that I have retired without a triumph, to this design, a question may arise by what from a contest with united academies, and long authority the authorities are selected, it is neces- successions of learned compilers. I cannot hope, sary to obviate it, by declaring that many of the in the warmest moments, to preserve so much writers whose testimonies will be alleged, were caution through so long a work as not often to selected by Mr. Pope; of whom I may be justi- sink into negligence, or to obtain so much knowfied in affirming, that were he still alive, solici-ledge of all its parts as not frequently to fall by tous as he was for the success of this work, he ignorance. I expect that sometimes the desire would not be displeased that I have undertaken it.

of accuracy will urge me to superfluities, and sometimes the fear of prolixity betray me to It will be proper that the quotations be ranged omissions: that in the extent of such variety, I according to the ages of their authors; and it shall be often bewildered; and in the mazes of will afford an agreeable amusement, if to the such intricacy, be frequently entangled; that in words and phrases which are not of our own one part refinement will be subtilized beyond growth, the name of the writer who first intro- exactness, and evidence dilated in another beyond duced them can be affixed; and if to words perspicuity. Yet I do not despair of approbation which are now antiquated, the authority be sub-from those who, knowing the uncertainty of conjoined of him who last admitted them. Thusjecture, the scantiness of knowledge, the fallibi

lity of memory, and the unsteadiness of atten- | attempt which has procured me the honour of tion, can compare the causes of error with the appearing thus publicly, My Lord, means of avoiding it, and the extent of art with the capacity of man; and whatever be the event of my endeavours, I shall not easily regret an

Your Lordship's most obedient and most humble servant, SAM. JOHNSON.

PREFACE

TO THE

ENGLISH DICTIONARY.

Ir is the fate of those who toil at the lower employments of life, to be rather driven by the fear of evil, than attracted by the prospect of good; to be exposed to censure, without hope of praise; to be disgraced by miscarriage, or punished for neglect, where success would have been without applause, and diligence without reward.

Among these unhappy mortals is the writer of dictionaries; whom mankind have considered, not as the pupil, but the slave of science, the pioneer of literature, doomed only to remove rubbish and clear obstructions from the paths through which Learning and Genius press forward to conquest and glory, without bestowing a smile on the humble drudge that facilitates their progress. Every other author may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach, and even this negative recompense has been yet granted to very few.

I have, notwithstanding this discouragement, attempted a Dictionary of the English Language, which, while it was employed in the cultivation of every species of literature, has itself been hitherto neglected; suffered to spread under the direction of chance, into wild exuberance; resigned to the tyranny of time and fashion: and exposed to the corruptions of ignorance and caprices of innovation."

tion were continually increasing; and analogy, which, though in some words obscure, was evident in others.

In adjusting the Orthography, which has been to this time unsettled and fortuitous, I found it necessary to distinguish those irregularities that are inherent in our tongue, and perhaps coeval with it, from others which the ignorance or negligence of later writers has produced. Every language has its anomalies, which though inconvenient, and in themselves once unnecessary, must be tolerated among the imperfections of human things, and which require only to be registered, that they may not be increased, and ascertained that they may not be confounded; but every language has likewise its improprieties and absurdities, which it is the duty of the lexicographer to correct or proscribe.

As language was at its beginning merely oral, all words of necessary or common use were spoken before they were written; and while they were unfixed by any visible signs, must have been spoken with great diversity, as we now observe those who cannot read to catch sounds imperfectly, and utter them negligently. When this wild and barbarous jargon was first reduced to an alphabet, every penman endeavoured to express, as he could, the sounds which he was accustomed to pronounce or to receive, When I took the first survey of my under- and vitiated in writing such words as were altaking, I found our speech copious without or- ready vitiated in speech. The powers of the der, and energetic without rule; wherever I letters when they were applied to a new lanturned my view, there was perplexity to be dis-guage, must have been vague and unsettled, and entangled and confusion to be regulated; choice was to be made out of boundless variety, without any established principle of selection; adulterations were to be detected, without a settled test of purity; and modes of expression to be rejected or received, without the suffrages of any writers of classical reputation or acknowledged authority.

Having therefore no assistance but from general grammar, I applied myself to the perusal of our writers; and noting whatever might be of use to ascertain or illustrate any word or phrase, accumulated in time the materials of a dictionary, which, by degrees, I reduced to method, establishing to myself, in the progress of the work, such rules as experience and analogy suggested to me; experience, which practice and observa

therefore different hands would exhibit the same sound by different combinations.

From this uncertain pronunciation arise in a great part the various dialects of the same country, which will always be observed to grow fewer, and less different, as books are multiplied; and from this arbitrary representation of sounds by letters proceeds that diversity of spelling, observable in the Saxon remains, and I suppose in the first books of every nation, which perplexes or destroys analogy, and produces anomalous formations, which, being once incorporated, can never be afterwards dismissed or reformed.

Of this kind are the derivatives length from long, strength from strong, darling from dear, breadth from broad, from dry, drought, and from high, height, which Milton, in zeal for analogy,

writes highth: Quid te exempta juvat spinis de In this part of the work, where caprice has pluribus una? to change all would be too much, long wantoned without control, and vanity and to change one is nothing. sought praise by petty reformation, I have enThis uncertainty is most frequent in the vow-deavoured to proceed with a scholar's reverence els, which are so capriciously pronounced, and so differently modified, by accident or affectation, not only in every province, but in every mouth, that to them, as is well known to etymologists, little regard is to be shown in the deduction of one language from another.

Such defects are not errors in orthography, but spots of barbarity impressed so deep in the English language, that criticism can never wash them away; these therefore must be permitted to remain untouched; but many words have likewise been altered by accident, or depraved by ignorance, as the pronunciation of the vulgar has been weakly followed; and some still continue to be variously written, as authors differ in their care or skill: of these it was proper to inquire the true orthography, which I have always considered as depending on their derivation, and have therefore referred them to their original languages; thus I write enchant, enchantment, enchanter, after the French, and incantation after the Latin: thus entire is chosen rather than intire, because it passed to us not from the Latin integer, but from the French entier.

Of many words it is difficult to say whether they were immediately received from the Latin or the French, since at the time when we had dominions in France, we had Latin service in our churches. It is, however, my opinion, that the French generally supplied us; for we have few Latin words, among the terms of domestic use, which are not French; but many French, which are very remote from Latin.

for antiquity, and a grammarian's regard to the genius of our tongue. I have attempted few alterations, and among those few, perhaps the greater part is from the modern to the ancient practice; and I hope I may be allowed to recommend to those, whose thoughts have been perhaps employed too anxiously on verbal singularities, not to disturb, upon narrow views, or for minute propriety, the orthography of their fathers. It has been asserted, that for the law to be known, is of more importance than to be right. "Change," says Hooker, "is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better." There is in constancy and stability a general and lasting advantage, which will always overbalance the slow improvements of gradual correction. Much less ought our written language to comply with the corruptions of oral utterance, or copy that which every variation of time or place makes different from itself, and imitate those changes, which will again be changed, while imitation is employed in observing them.

This recommendation of steadiness and uniformity does not proceed from an opinion that particular combinations of letters have much influence on human happiness; or that truth may not be successfully taught by modes of spelling fanciful and erroneous; I am not yet so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven. Language is only the instrument of science, and words are but the signs of ideas; I wish, however, that the instrument might be less Even in words of which the derivation is ap-apt to decay, and that signs might be permaparent, I have been often obliged to sacrifice uniformity to custom; thus I write, in compliance with a numberless majority, convey and inveigh, deceit and receipt, fancy and phantom; sometimes the derivative varies from the primitive, as explain and explanation, repeat and repe

tition.

Some combinations of letters having the same power are used indifferently without any discoverable reason of choice, as in choak, choke; soap, sope; fewel, fuel, and many others; which I have sometimes inserted twice, that those who search for them under either form, may not search in vain.

In examining the orthography of any doubtful word, the mode of spelling by which it is inserted in the series of the dictionary, is to be considered as that to which I give, perhaps not often rashly, the preference. I have left, in the examples, to every author his own practice unmolested, that the reader may balance suffrages, and judge between us; but this question is not always to be determined by reputed or by real learning; some men, intent upon greater things, have thought little on sounds and derivations; some, knowing in the ancient tongues, have neglected those in which our words are commonly to be sought. Thus Hammond writes fecibleness for feasibleness, because I suppose he imagined it derived immediately from the Latin; and some words, such as dependant, dependent; dependance, dependence, vary their final syllable, as one or other language is present to the writer.

nent, like the things which they denote.

In settling the orthography, I have not wholly neglected the pronunciation, which I have directed, by printing an accent upon the acute or elevated syllable. It will sometimes be found that the accent is placed, by the author quoted, on a different syllable from that marked in the alphabetical series; it is then to be understood, that custom has varied, or that the author has, in my opinion, pronounced wrong. Short directions are sometimes given where the sound of letters is irregular; and if they are sometimes omitted, defect in such minute observations will be more easily excused, than superfluity.

In the investigation both of the orthography and signification of words, their Etymology was necessarily to be considered, and they were therefore to be divided into primitives and derivatives. A primitive word, is that which can be traced no further to any English root; thus circumspect, circumvent, circumstance, delude, concave, and complicate, though compounds in the Latin, are to us primitives. Derivatives, are all those that can be referred to any word in English of greater simplicity.

The derivatives I have referred to their primitives, with an accuracy sometimes needless; for who does not see that remoteness comes from remote, lovely from love, concavity from concave, and demonstrative from demonstrate? But this grammatical exuberance the scheme of my work did not allow me to repress. It is of great importance, in examining the general fabric of a