A Dictionary of the English Language

Lore & Background

Johnson took about nine years from contract to publication to complete the work, though he had claimed he could finish it in three. He did so single-handedly, with only clerical assistance to copy illustrative quotations he had marked in books. Johnson produced several revised editions during his life. The Plan received the patronage of Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, but Johnson later felt Chesterfield had not made good on his promise of support. The title page had 'Samuel Johnson' and 'English Language' printed in red. Johnson introduced humour or prejudice into some definitions, such as 'Excise: a hateful tax' and 'Lexicographer: a harmless drudge.'

Reader's Guide

Earlier dictionaries were often poorly organized glossaries of 'hard words' that failed to give sufficient sense of the language as it appeared in use. Johnson's work was the first to comprehensively document the English lexicon, using literary quotations to illustrate meanings and adding notes on usage.

Did You Know?

• Johnson took about nine years from contract to publication to complete the dictionary, though he had claimed he could finish it in three.
• Johnson introduced humorous definitions such as 'Lexicographer: a harmless drudge' and 'Oats: a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.'

A Lineage of Witty Definitions

Before Bierce claimed the satirical dictionary as his own, the tradition of playful lexicography was thin and scattered. Only a handful of entries carried a wink of humor, and those few became famous precisely because they were rare exceptions in an otherwise grave text. This patchwork of incomplete, mostly serious predecessors left the field wide open for someone to build an entire dictionary around satire.

Three Decades of Warming Up

Bierce did not sit down and produce The Devil's Dictionary in a single burst of inspiration. He even dropped jokes into personal correspondence, once defining "missionaries" with a vivid image of seizing a crucifix to beat a dog.

The Wasp and the Theft of an Idea

The satirical dictionary column that became iconic did not originate in Bierce's hands.

From Mixed Reviews to Global Reverence

The work's reputation, however, compounded slowly over the decades that followed. It was translated into numerous languages, quoted endlessly, and imitated by writers around the world, building a global profile that its initial reception never suggested. In the 1970s, the American Revolution Bicentennial Administration included it among "The 100 Greatest Masterpieces of American Literature." Critics have described it as "howlingly funny," and Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Zweig went further, calling it "probably the most brilliant work of satire written in America" and possibly one of the greatest satirical works in all of world literature. What began as scattered newspaper jokes had become a canonical text.