Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) was one of the most influential literary figures of 18th-century England. He was a poet, essayist, critic, and moral philosopher, but he is best remembered as a lexicographer, a scholar of words and their meanings.
Johnson undertook the monumental task of compiling A Dictionary of the English Language in 1746, at a time when English lacked a standardized dictionary. Unlike French or Italian, English had no authoritative reference work to regulate spelling, pronunciation, and meaning.
- Johnson worked largely alone, without institutional backing.
- The project took about nine years to complete.
- The dictionary was finally published in 1755 in two large volumes.
Significance of the Dictionary:-
- It contained over 40,000 words.
- Meanings were illustrated with literary quotations from writers such as Shakespeare, Milton, and Dryden.
- Johnson did not merely define words; he explained their usage, nuance, and moral tone.
- The work brought standardization and stability to English at a critical stage in its development.
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