The
Birmingham Journal was the first newspaper known to have been published in
Birmingham, England. Little is known of it as few records remain, but a single
copy survives in the Library of Birmingham probably published on 14 November
1732 ~ by this man, the subject matter of today’s
Google doodle.
He was born this day in 1709 in
Lichfield, Staffordshire. His mother was 40 when she gave birth,
considered an unusually late pregnancy, so precautions were taken, and a
"man-midwife" and surgeon of "great reputation" was brought
in to assist. The infant reportedly did
not cry, and there were concerns for the baby's health. Sometime later, he
contracted scrofula, known at the time as the "King's Evil" because
it was thought royalty could cure it. He
did receive royal touch from Queen Anne, but
the ritual was ineffective, and an operation was performed that left him
with permanent scars across his face and body.
His
career may not be colourful, he did face oddities and difficulties, but his
works did bring fame to him. Published
on 15 April 1755 ‘ A Dictionary of the
English Language’ , sometimes published as Johnson's Dictionary, is among the
most influential dictionaries in the history of the English language.
His
work was not the first but perhaps the best at the time, coming as it did when
there was dissatisfaction with the
dictionaries of the period, so in June 1746 a group of London booksellers
contracted Johnson to write a dictionary for the sum of 1,500 guineas (£1,575),
equivalent to about £220,000 in 2017 ! Johnson took seven years to complete the work,
although he had claimed he could finish it in three. Remarkably, he did so
single-handedly, with only clerical assistance to copy out the illustrative
quotations that he had marked in books. Johnson produced several revised
editions during his life.Until the completion of
the Oxford English Dictionary 173 years later, Johnson's was viewed as the
pre-eminent English dictionary.
His
life was not all that successful perhaps, in 1756 Mar, Johnson was arrested for
an outstanding debt of £5 18s. Johnson had several health problems, including
childhood tuberculous scrofula resulting in deep facial scarring, deafness in
one ear and blindness in one eye, gout, testicular cancer, and a stroke in his
final year that left him unable to speak; his autopsy indicated that he had
pulmonary fibrosis along with cardiac failure probably due to hypertension, a
condition then unknown. Johnson displayed signs consistent with several
diagnoses, including depression and Tourette syndrome (TS). To overcome these
feelings, Johnson tried to constantly involve himself with various activities,
but this did not seem to help. Boswell claimed that Johnson "felt himself
overwhelmed with an horrible melancholia, with perpetual irritation,
fretfulness, and impatience; and with a dejection, gloom, and despair, which
made existence misery".
Despite
the impact of the best work of his time, fortune often eluded Johnson, and he struggled
with women and alcohol. The work once finished was as much of a work of art as
one of reference, full of witty definitions.
Here
are some examples given in Telegraph of date:
Dull:
Not exhilaterating (sic); not delightful; as, to make dictionaries is dull work
Lexicographer:
A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge that busies himself in tracing the
original, and detailing the signification of words
Mouth-friend:
Someone who pretends to be your friend
Oats:
A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland appears
to support the people
Pension:
An allowance made to any one without an equivalent. In England it is generally
understood to mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country
Stockjobber:
a low wretch who gets money by buying and selling shares
It
was hardly comprehensive: the first edition contained just 42,773 entries,
compared to more than 250,000 words in the English language.Contrary to one
particular Blackadder sketch, the dictionary does, in fact, contain the word
"sausage".While Johnson is best known for his dictionary, he had an
accomplished career even without it. He was a poet and spent years creating a
collection of the works of Shakespeare.His life also made him the subject of
the first modern biography, The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell.
Samuel
Johnson (18 September 1709 [O.S. 7 September] – 13 December 1784), often
referred to as Dr. Johnson, is the man the post and the doodle of the day is
about.
நிகண்டு என்பது சொற்களுக்கான பொருள்களைத்
தருவதற்காக ஆக்கப்பட்ட நூல் வகையாகும். தமிழில் அகராதிகளுக்கு முன்னோடியாக இருந்தவை
நிகண்டுகள். திவாகரநிகண்டு எனும் நிகண்டு நூல் கிபி 8ஆம் நூற்றாண்டில் வாழ்ந்த திவாகர
முனிவர் என்பவரால் இயற்றப்பட்டது என கருதப்படுகிறது.
With
regards – S. Sampathkumar
18th
Sept. 2017.
