6. Language Use, Task 2 - First English dictionary

 

In 1746 a young writer called Samuel Johnson (0) was asked to prepare an English dictionary. Johnson worked on this dictionary for nine years, (1) the help of six other people. For three years he read the works of hundreds of English writers and found examples of words (2) the dictionary. Then he began to write the meaning of the words. He chose not only ‘hard’ words, (3) also many ordinary ones. When Johnson’s ‘A Dictionary of the English Language’ appeared in 1755, it was (4) success. It explained (5) than 42,000 words, and as well as the meaning of each word, it gave the pronunciation and history of the words. He very often gave an example from literature to show how the word was used. Johnson gave as many different meanings of the word (6) he could. The dictionary was not perfect: some of Johnson’s explanations were harder to understand than the words (7), some expressed his personal opinions, and some words (8) not listed because he disliked them. However, it remained the most important English dictionary in Britain for more than a century.