LEXICOGRAPHER - A writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Johnson calls a lexicographer a dictionary writer and a harmless drudge.
- In plain terms
- Dictionary makers are modest, unglamorous workers.
- What can you take from it?
- Lexicographers do essential but low‑profile work.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Why are some essential jobs seen as menial?
- How can we better honor lexicographers?
Another view
The term “harmless drudge” undervalues the skill involved.
More from Samuel Johnson
GRUBSTREET - The name of a street near Moorsfield, London, much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems.
Permalink to quote #66 NETWORK - Any thing reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections.
Permalink to quote #68 EXCISE - A hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid.
Permalink to quote #65
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