It is an odd coincidence that in the year when the Oxford English Dictionary is being put on to a computer, which will be able to read all of it in 10 minutes, we should also be celebrating the bicentenary of the death of the last man to write an English dictionary only with single-handed-Dr. Samuel Johnson. Johnson's dictionary took him eight years from 1747 to 1755, working in the attic of his prefix = st1 /Londonhome, now one of the city's tourist sights. Then, it was like a counting house with his copyists on high stools, transcribing the works and their illustrative contexts, which he had underlined in his wide range of reading. He had six assistants and finished his task in eight years. The editor of the Oxford dictionary had 25 lexicographers to assist him and, although the first volume was published in 1884, the last supplement would not be ready until next year-101 years later. The present editor, Robert Burchfield, had put 28 years into it. Yet Johnson's dictionary was still being used until the Oxford dictionary replaced it, and it was regularly reprinted long after his death in 1784. It was written, he said, to refine the English language,"to clear it from colloquial barbarisms and licentious idioms." It certainly bore the stamp of one man's personality. Many of his definitions show his sense of humor. "Novel", for instance, is defined as "a small tale, generally of love", and"dull" is illustrated by the sentence:"To make dictionaries is a dull work." Dr. Johnson's dictionary is s dictionary of     .
colloquial barbarisms licentious idioms standard English colloquial barbarisms and licentious idioms