Johnson’s English Dictionary is the first dictionary ever written in English, the only one written by a single author, and, according to many experts, the greatest of all English dictionaries. Jane Austen, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens and Charlotte Brontë all used what was known for over a century as “the dictionary”, while Samuel Taylor Coleridge said he viewed with suspicion any man “who should speak of it without respect and gratitude”. Since its first publication, it has been indispensable to those learning English, those studying its history, and those who care about its literature. Informative, irreverent and funny, it is a joy for everyday readers and a browser’s paradise.
By making this masterpiece available once more, the release of the Lexicos edition marks an event in ebook publishing. The only unabridged ebook edition of this great work, indeed the only one available in any format, it has been professionally edited by qualified scholars (not scanned or OCR’d) and formatted for ePUB. It is based on the 1773 edition, the final edition of the Dictionary expanded and revised by Johnson himself. It also incorporates those entries included in the original 1755 edition and cut out in 1773, along with Johnson’s original preface, and his “Plan of a Dictionary of the English Language,” written in 1747. It is fully searchable and contains an active table of contents.
