[4] This is the primary reason why in Middle and Modern English, unlike what is found in German and Dutch, the terms of culture, art, science, and philosophy, are of French or, through French, of Latin origin.  The corresponding Old English terms were forgotten during the age of illiteracy, and when, generations later, the speaker of English came again to deal with such subjects, he had to do like Layamon, when he knew no longer tungol-croeft, and could refer to it only as ’the craft ihote astronomie in other kunnes speche.’

[5] Also Medulla Grammaticae, or usually Grammatice.

[6] At the end is an alphabetical list of adjectives; extending from lf. 79a, col. 2, to 83a, foot.

[7] It must however be mentioned that the second dictionary of English and another modern tongue was appropriately ’A Dictionary in Englyshe and Welshe, moche necessary to all suche Welshemen as wil spedlye learne the englyshe tongue, thought vnto the kynges maiestie very mete to be sette forth to the vse of his graces subiectes in Wales, ... by Wyllyam Salesbury.’  The colophon is ’Imprynted at London in Foster Lane, by me John Waley. 1547.’

[8] In the Dedication he says, ’Which worke, long ago for the most part, was gathered by me, but lately augmented by my sonne Thomas, who now is Schoolemaister in London.’

[9] ’To the right honourable, worshipfull, vertuous, & godlie Ladies, the Lady Hastings, the Lady Dudley, the Lady Mountague, the Ladie Wingfield, and the Lady Leigh, his Christian friends, R.C. wisheth great prosperitie in this life, with increase of grace, and peace from GOD our Father, through Iesus Christ our Lord and onely Sauiour.’ (A 2.)

[10] His explanations of such words were curt enough:  ’Cat, a Creature well known’; ‘Horse, a Beast well known’; ’Man, a Creature endued with Reason.’

[11] ’An interleaved copy of Bailey’s dictionary in folio he made the repository of the several articles.’ Works of J., 1787, I. 175.

[12] Pg. coco, a grinning mask, applied to the coco-nut because of the three holes and central protuberance at its apex, suggesting two eyes, a mouth, and nose.

[13] The following are examples of his own practice:  The Rambler (1751), No. 153, par. 3, ’I was in my eighteenth year dispatched to the university.’  Ibid., No. 161, par. 4, ’I ... soon dispatched a bargain on the usual terms.’ Letter to Mrs. Thrale, May 6, 1776, ’We dispatched our journey very peaceably.’

[14] Among such must be reckoned the treatment of words in the explanation of which Johnson showed political or personal animus or whimsical humour, as in the well-known cases of whig, tory, excise, pension, pensioner, oats, Grub-street, lexicographer (see Boswell’s Johnson, ed.  Birkbeck Hill, i. 294); although it must be admitted that these have come to be among the famous spots of the Dictionary, and have given gentle amusement to thousands, to whom it has been a delight to see ‘human nature’ too strong for lexicographic decorum.