Skip to content
quotesby

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

  • career counseling
  • academic discussions

Putting it to work

  • recognize the value of reference work
  • appreciate behind‑the‑scenes roles

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

  1. GRUBSTREET - The name of a street near Moorsfield, London, much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems.

    Permalink to quote #66
  2. NETWORK - Any thing reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections.

    Permalink to quote #68
  3. 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

Related quotes

  1. I cannot get from the nature of the proposition to the individual logical operations!!! That is, I cannot bring out how far the proposition is the picture of t…

    Ludwig WittgensteinLudwig Wittgenstein quote #2
  2. Let Each Man Exercise The Art He Knows.

    AristophanesAristophanes quote #3
  3. Another occupation might have been better.

    F. H. BradleyF. H. Bradley quote #17