“The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England!”

So wrote Samuel Johnson, lexicographer, poet and wit of the 18th century. Johnson was the inspiration for the Idler. He published a weekly column in 1758 and 1759 called The Idler. In it he describes the habits of an Idler, largely based on himself. Though productive and creative, he was constitutionally indolent.

His Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland was published in 1775. He loved Scotland, though was not above teasing the country. His definition of oats is well known: “Oats. A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.”

We call for 18th September to be made a National Holiday to celebrate this genius.

Here we reproduce the first essay of his “Idler” series, and you can also inspect a pdf of the first edition of our own Idler magazine from 1993, which featured Dr Johnson as cover star. Just click over on the right.

Here are a few of our favourite lost words from his dictionary.

Alegar – sour ale which has lost its spirit
Alexiterick – that which acts as an antidote to poison
Bumbailiff – a bailiff of the lowest kind
Carminative – that which expels wind
Chapfallen – having the mouth shrunk
Clodpole – a stupid fellow
Daggletail -bemired; a slattern
Erubescence – redness; a blush
Ferrule – an iron at the end of a stick
Greensickness – a disease incident to virgins, socalled from the paleness it produces
Harlequin – a buffoon, a merry-andrew
Horsemarten – large kind of bee
Ironmould – yellow stain in linen
Jade – worthless horse; a sorry-woman
Kickshaw – a fantastical dish of meat
Lankness – a want of plumpness
Mullebrity – womanhood, tenderness
Noetick – intellectual, done by the understanding
Obtumescence – loss of speech
Obstupify – to render stupid
Pinguid – fat, unctuous, greasy, plump
Poculent – fit for drink
Quodlibef – a nice point
Rearmouse – a bat
Sallyport – a port to make sallies from
Scaramouch – a buffoon in motley dress
Stoolball – a kind of game with balls
Tomboy – a romping girl; mean fellow
Wimble – a tool for boring holes
X – is a numeral for ten; but though found in Saxon words, begins no word in the English language
And last of all – Zootomy – dissection of the bodies of brute beasts

Some notes about the dictionary

Samuel Johnson’s ‘Dictionary of the English Language’ was first published in 1755. It took just over eight years to compile, required six helpers, and listed 40,000 words. It was a more extensive and complex dictionary than any of its predecessors.

There are over 114,000 quotations in the dictionary. Johnson was the first English lexicographer to use citations and that greatly influenced the style of future dictionaries. He had scoured books stretching back to the 1500s, often quoting from Milton or Shakespeare.

Many of his words were incomprehensible to the average reader: ‘deosculation’, ‘odontalgick’. His definition of oats is well known: “Oats. A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.” His definition of “lexicographer” shows self-deprecating wit: “A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words.”