Selections from Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary: “A”

Edited by Dan Leo, LL.D., Professor of 18th Century Gender Studies; Assistant Touch Football Coach, Olney Community College; author of Bozzie and Dr. Sam: The Case of the Periwigged Perpetrator (the Olney Community College Press).

Illustrated by rhoda penmarq for “penmarq productions™. “In my book a ‘penmarq production’ means a high-tone production!” – Horace P. Sternwall, author of the best-selling novel Boulevard of the Damned (the Olney Community College Press).

to begin at the beginning, click here

for previous chapter, click here

Abactor. Those who drive away or steal cattle in herds, or great numbers at once, in distinction from those that steal only a sheep or two. Abarticulation. A good and apt construction of the bones, by which they move strongly and easily; or that species of articulation that has manifest motion. Aberuncate. To pull up by the roots; to extirpate utterly. Abbey-Lubber. A slothful loiterer in a religious house, under pretence of retirement and austerity. Abhor. To hate with acrimony; to detest to extremity; to loath. Abligurition.  A prodigal spending on meat and drink. Adorement. Adoration; worship; a word scarcely used. Acephalous. Without a head.  Adolescence. The age succeeding childhood, and succeeded by puberty; more largely, that part of life in which the body has not yet reached its full perfection. Accubation. The antient posture of leaning at meals. Adder's-grass. The name of a plant, so named because serpents lurk about it. Admurmuration. The act of murmuring, or whispering to another. Aphilanthropy.  Want of love to mankind. Adorableness. The quality of being adorable; worthiness of divine honours. Adventurer. He that seeks occasions of hazard; he that puts himself in the hands of chance. Anthropophaginian. A ludicrous word, formed by Shakespeare from anthropophagi, for the sake of a formidable sound. (We shall continue our serialization of Boswell’s Life of Johnson next week. Sponsored in part by Fox’s U-bet™ chocolate syrup, “Kosher for Passover!”) "B"