【1989 Archives】
Light the candles989 Archives word nerds: It's lexicographer Samuel Johnson's 308th birthday.
In celebration, Monday's Google Doodle honors Johnson, known best as writer of A Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1755.
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable According to Humanities,Johnson was not the first lexicographer, nor the first to record definitions, but he was the first to craft a dictionary that sought to standardize the English language-- to create a set of rules to which writers and speakers could adhere.
And, as the Encyclopædia Brittanica notes, his dictionary is remembered for the detail and clarity of its definitions in comparison to previous attempts from other writers.
Per Brittanica:
"Johnson’s accomplishment was to provide for the English language a dictionary that incorporated with skill and intellectual power the prevailing ideals and resources and the best available techniques of European lexicography."
In short, A Dictionary of the English Language was known for being the greatest in its class-- the iPhone in a sea of BlackBerry smartphones.
After all, best, not first is a popular business philosophy for a reason.
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