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Article: Johnson's dictionary and the language of learning.
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- February 27, 1987
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1987 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Johnson's Dictionary and the Language of Learning
by Robert DeMaria Jr.(North Carolina, 303 pp., $25)
THOMAS CARLYLE claimed that "HadJohnson left nothing but his Dictionary, one might have traced there a great intellect, a genuine man.' Since then, the "genuine man' has sometimes obscured the "great intellect.' We tend too often to dismiss the Dictionary with cliches, so that nearly everyone knows Samuel Johnson's definitions of lexicographer ("a harmless drudge') and network ("anything reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections') and oats (let's twit the Scots) and Whig (them too) and pension and so on. ...