The first complete English dictionary was Samuel Johnson's 1755 *A Dictionary of the English Language*, which defined over 40,000 words using 114,000 illustrative quotations from literature. It established the model for systematic word compilation, citing usage in major authors rather than relying on guesswork.
Johnson compiled his dictionary over eight years, working independently with a small team. He rejected the idea that language should be regulated by grammar schools or academic committees. Instead, he based entries on actual usage in texts by Shakespeare, Milton, and Dryden. This empirical method became foundational for later lexicography.
Before Johnson, English dictionaries were limited. Robert Cawdrey's 1604 *Table Alphabeticall* listed only 2,500 words, mostly technical and foreign terms. Earlier efforts focused on Latin or Greek roots, not everyday speech. Johnson's work broke from that tradition by treating English as a living language worthy of detailed study.
Johnson's dictionary organized words alphabetically, with each entry showing pronunciation, part of speech, definition, and a quotation demonstrating usage. For example, "ambition" was defined as "a desire of great things," followed by a quote from Shakespeare's *Julius Caesar*: "I have no will to quarrel with him."
He did not include every word spoken in England. He selected terms based on frequency in canonical literature. Words like "wheedle" or "mawkish" appeared because they occurred in plays or poetry, not because they were common in conversation. This created a bias toward formal, educated speech.
Johnson also added playful commentary. He defined "oats" as "a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland is known to feed men." His tone revealed both scholarly rigor and personal wit-qualities absent in earlier lexicons.
The dictionary was printed in two volumes, bound in calf leather. It contained 2,300 pages, with dense black type and hand-drawn symbols marking pronunciation. Johnson wrote all definitions by hand before sending them to printers.
He sourced quotations from 1,000 books, including 16th-century drama, 17th-century sermons, and 18th-century novels. He read extensively, often underlining passages relevant to a word. His library included editions of the Bible, Chaucer, and Swift.
One non-obvious fact: Johnson did not invent the alphabetical order. That system had existed since the 15th century. What he did was refine it-grouping synonyms, adding cross-references, and standardizing spelling. He also introduced the concept of "sense" divisions: multiple meanings of a word separated by numbered entries.
Johnson's dictionary became a tool for writers, educators, and the emerging middle class. It helped standardize spelling and usage during a time of rapid linguistic change due to industrialization and expanding literacy.
By 1785, the second edition was published with corrections. By 1800, it was required reading in British schools. American scholars adopted it too-Benjamin Franklin cited it in letters, and Noah Webster studied it closely before writing his own dictionary.
A concrete example: In 1760, a London merchant used Johnson's dictionary to resolve a dispute over the meaning of "tender" in a contract. The word had two senses-"to offer" and "to show emotion." Johnson's entry clarified that "tender" as a verb meant "to offer" in legal contexts, settling the case.
Many assume the first dictionary was the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), launched in 1884. But the OED is a historical dictionary-it documents how words changed over time. Johnson's 1755 work was descriptive, not historical. It captured English as it was used in the 18th century, not how it evolved.
Another confusion: People think Johnson invented the idea of defining words. But ancient Sumerians recorded glossaries in cuneiform. The Romans compiled Latin dictionaries. Johnson's innovation was scale and methodology-not the concept itself.
Even more misleading is the belief that Johnson's dictionary was perfect. It omitted many regional dialects, excluded slang, and misdefined some words. For example, he defined "bottle" as "a vessel for holding liquids," but failed to distinguish between wine bottles and medicine bottles. Modern revisions corrected such oversights.
| Type | First Appearance | Key Feature | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lexical | 1604 (Cawdrey) | Lists rare or technical terms | "Fiddle" = "a musical instrument" |
| Complete | 1755 (Johnson) | Uses literary citations, multiple senses | "Duty" = "obligation," "tax," "service" |
| Historical | 1884 (OED) | Tracks word evolution through time | "Gay" - from "carefree" (13th c.) to "homosexual" (20th c.) |
I once spent a weekend comparing Johnson's 1755 definition of "fashion" with modern usage. He defined it as "a mode of dress adopted by the fashionable," citing Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Today, "fashion" includes trends in music, food, and digital identity. Johnson's version was narrow, but it laid the groundwork for how we track cultural shifts through language.
Johnson's dictionary remains a benchmark. The seven urban dictionary entries today reflect the same impulse-to capture how people actually speak-but with real-time updates and crowd-sourced examples. Johnson's work was slow, deliberate, and rooted in print. Modern equivalents are fast, global, and constantly evolving.
Understanding the first dictionary clarifies how language reference tools developed. It wasn't a sudden invention. It was the result of centuries of effort-from scribes copying manuscripts to scholars compiling wordlists. Johnson's 1755 volume marked the turning point: the moment English became a subject worthy of systematic study.