WHAT:
English Language Dictionary
WHERE:
17 Gough Square, London, EC4A 3DE, UK
LOCATION:
WHEN:
15th April 1755
WHO:
Samuel Johnson
DETAILS:
There was dissatisfaction with the dictionaries of the period, so in June 1746 a group of London booksellers contracted Johnson to write a dictionary for the sum of 1,500 guineas, equivalent to about £310,000 in 2025. Johnson took seven years to complete the work, although he had claimed he could finish it in three. He did so single-handedly, with only clerical assistance to copy the illustrative quotations that he had marked in books. Johnson produced several revised editions during his life. Until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary 173 years later, Johnson’s was viewed as the pre-eminent English dictionary.
LINKS:
English Dictionary – 270th Anniversary 2025
17 Gough Square is where Samuel Johnson and his assistants compiled The World’s First Comprehensive English Dictionary published on the 15th of April 1755. This may be one of the most influential World Firsts we have ever had the privilege of marking. Without this exemplary work many of the other Inventions, Discoveries and World Firsts we celebrate may never have been so well defined nor shared with others with such precise definition and clarity.
