English dictionaries of the 18th century

[Joel S. Berson]

At 4/5/2008 04:35 AM, Jesse Sheidlower wrote:
>On Fri, Apr 04, 2008 at 11:18:37PM -0400, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> > What would be one or two of the most well-reputed and/or widely used
> > dictionaries of English in the second half of the 18th century?
>
>Samuel Johnson.

Ugh.  Do I feel dumb.  Comes of studying New England rather than Old England.

And from looking at a university library catalog's list of holdings
for the subject "English language -- Dictionaries" in chronological
order.  I had come to Bailey (although his name was not familiar to
me) and seen that he had many editions, but became lazy around the
35th item in the list.  Immediately after item 39, Bailey's 1755
edition, is Johnson.

I will consult them, in editions after Linnaeus (1758), re camel vs. dromedary.

Joel

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