Status Update

W.D. Clarke is on page 10 of 704

...we laugh at the elixir that promises to prolong life to a thousand years; and with equal justice may the lexicographer be derided, who being able to produce no example of a nation that has preserved their words and phrases from mutability, shall imagine that his dictionary can embalm his language, and secure it from corruption and decay…

— Mar 27, 2022 04:42PM

A Dictionary of the English Language: An Anthology

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W.D.’s Previous Updates

W.D. Clarke is on page 18 of 704

Sometimes Johnson simply gives up: drayplough (‘A plough of a particular kind’), sonata (‘A tune’), surprise sense 2 (‘A dish, I suppose, which has nothing in it’).

— Mar 30, 2022 06:06PM

W.D. Clarke is on page 6 of 704

n. 2 Only two of his personal definitions seem to have caused Johnson any trouble... [2] And Johnson’s view of a pension as ‘pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country’ was the source of much merriment, some quite vindictive, when he accepted just such a pension (of £300) from the king in 1762.

— Mar 26, 2022 06:16PM

W.D. Clarke is starting

Had to jump ahead and check "Banker" first...