Who was the father of the modern dictionary.? | Who was Samuel Johnson?

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), oft-quoted biographer,
poet and lexicographer wrote A Dictionary of the English
Language (1755), published in two folio volumes.

     Samuel Johnson, who wrote English language's most comprehensive dictionary within the 1750s, has been honoured by a Google Doodle on what would have been his 308th birthday.

     Google's hat-tip is perhaps alittle ironic, because the increase of the search engine has been part responsible for recent declines in dictionary sales, however in many ways Johnson's original book was a precursor to the search engine.

     Johnson, born in 1709, spent 9 years working on A dictionary of English Language, that was published in 1755. It remained the definitive English dictionary until the Oxford English dictionary was completed in 1928.

      Despite his impact, fortune usually eluded Johnson, and he struggled with ladies and alcohol. However, he's called one of the world's greatest lexicographers, as well because the subject of the modern biography.

A dictionary of English Language

Johnson, who grew up in Staffordshire, didn't create the 1st English dictionary, but those that preceded his were poor comparisons, often stiff and dry.

It took Johnson 9 years to complete (he rarely got up before noon), though he had originally promised to complete it in 3. Once finished it had been as much of a work of art as one of reference, filled with witty definitions

. Here ar some examples:

• Dull: Not exhilaterating (sic); not delightful; as, to make dictionaries is dull work

• Lexicographer: A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words

• Mouth-friend: someone who pretends to be your friend

• Oats: A grain, which in england is generally given to horses, but in Scotland appears to support the people

• Pension: an allowance made to any one without an equivalent. In england it's generally understood to mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country

• Stockjobber: a low wretch who gets cash by buying and selling shares

• It was hardly comprehensive: the primary edition contained just 42,773 entries, compared to over 250,000 words within the English language.

Contrary to 1 specific Blackadder sketch, the dictionary does, in fact, contain the word "sausage".

The front of the dictionary

Personal life and career

     While Johnson is best known  for his dictionary, he had an accomplished career even while not it. He was a poet and spent years making a collection of the works of Shakespeare.

     Despite skilled success but, Johnson - disfigured from childhood tuberculosis - often found himself in debt and had very little luck with women. His wife Tetty became addicted to laudanum|opiate} - opium dissolved in alcohol - and died in 1752, before his dictionary was completed.

    He then fell in love with a married person named Hester Thrale. once Thrale's husband died she moved  to Italy to marry her music teacher.

     His life also made him the topic of the primary modern biography, The lifetime of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell.

Best quotes

• "When a man is tired of London, he's tired of life; for there's in London all that life can afford."

• "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

• "Much may be made of a scotchman, if he be caught young."

• "He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man." (On the subject of drink)

• "No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money."