Johnson's Dictionary: A Modern Selection [Abridged] [Paperback]

Samuel Johnson (Author), George Milne (Author), E. L. McAdam (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1996

Browse through 5,000 of Samuel Johnson's extraordinary contributions to the English language. You know you're not looking up ordinary definitions when you read that a lexicographer is "a writer of dictionaries: a harmless drudge". Many of the words have gone completely out of fashion (abecedarian, billingsgate, clapperclaw, yux, and zeugma), but once you see their meanings, you may want to bring them back.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Johnson's complete 1755 Dictionary runs to 2,300 pages of definitions and literary examples, a preface, a history of the language, and a grammar. The Cassell modern selection is a mere 463 pages, but an excellent start. This is a highly individual, often idiosyncratic dictionary, and most people now check entries more for verbal pleasure and historical curiosity than usage. Though Johnson began his dictionary in a prescriptive mode--he would tell the reader what was right and what not--he ended by being surprisingly descriptive. There is of course his concern with low words and his loathing of cant, his self-knowing definitions of grubstreet ( "Originally the name of a street in Moorfields in London, much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems...") and lexicographer ("a writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge..."). In their introduction, E. L. McAdam and George Milne point out that Johnson "had no prejudice against merely vulgar words, and may have enjoyed them." He does, after all, include among other phrases, fart, complete with two examples. Jonathan Swift's is hilarious, John Suckling's surprisingly wistful: "Love is the fart / Of every heart; / It pains a man when 'tis kept close; / And others doth offend, when 'tis set loose." Among other acute joys are the forward-looking verb to foreslack, "To neglect by idleness," and the first entry under to hoodwink, which awakens one to its physical beginnings, "To blind with something bound over the eyes."

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Cassell; Abridged edition (March 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0304347051
• ISBN-13: 978-0304347056
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,954,972 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A literary delight, July 23, 2006

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Johnson's Dictionary: A Modern Selection (Dover Books on Literature & Drama) (Paperback)

The greatness of Johnson's Dictionary is in good part in its literary quality. Johnson is a writer of great verve, humor, satiric sharpness, moral insight and wit. The Dictionary is of course not to be chewed and digested, but rather to be tasted for its special treats. An abridgement like this provides the reader with a more portable source of pleasure, a volume which can be schlepped along , and read on bus or train. I would strongly recommend that along with this work the reader get a hold of Hitchings work on the story of the making of the Dictionary.

0 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, July 7, 2009

By 

M. Lee "MEL" (Gresham, Oregon) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Johnson's Dictionary; A Modern Selection (First Modern Library Edition) (Hardcover)

Received my copy of this "Modern Selection" and admit that it was at best, disappointing as a representation of some of Dr. Johnson's work. Not really worth a place in my library.