Johnson's dictionary

[Fred Shapiro]

On Sun, 3 Apr 2005, James C Stalker wrote:

> Hitchings claims that US lawyers consult Johnson, not Webster, in order to
> interpret the US Constituition.  Interesting claim.  If Roger is still out
> there lurking, he might have a comment on that point of view.

The idea is that in 1787 people would have consulted Johnson rather than
Webster, since Webster's was not yet published.

Fred Shapiro


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------