Selections from Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary: “C”

Edited by Dan Leo, LL.D., Assistant Professor of Remedial English Composition, Assistant Croquet Coach, Olney Community College; author of Bozzie and Dr. Sam: The Case of the Obstreperous Papist (the Olney Community College Press).

Illustrated by rhoda penmarq with the assistance of roy dismas and eddie el Greco . A “penmarq studios™” production. “The  ‘penmarq studios™’are to be commended for their many and multifarious outstanding contributions to the cultural commonweal.” – Horace P. Sternwall, author of “Night Soil” and other Stories of the Slums, the Olney Community College Press. 

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Cachinnation.  A loud laughter. Cackerel. A fish, said to make those who eat it laxative. Cackle. To make a noise as a goose. Cake. A kind of delicate bread. Camelopard. An Abyssinian animal, taller than an elephant, but not so thick. He is so named, because he has a neck and head like a camel; he is spotted like a pard, but his spots are white upon a red ground. The Italians call him giaraffa.  To Caw. To cry as the rook, raven, or crow. Chair. A moveable seat. Chiliaedron. A figure of a thousand sides. Christmas. The day on which the nativity of our blessed Saviour is celebrated, by the particular service of the church. Clownery. Ill-breeding; churlishness; rudeness; brutality. Cotquean. A man who busies himself with women's affairs. Crapulous. Drunken; intemperate; sick with intemperance. Crocitation. The croaking of frogs or ravens.  Crucigerous. Bearing the cross. Cynanthropy. A species of madness in which men have the qualities of dogs. Cynick. A philosopher of the snarling or currish sort; a follower of Diogenes; a rude man; a snarler; a misanthrope. (We will resume our serialization of Boswell’s Life of Johnson next week. This project made possible in part through the sponsorship of Bob’s Bowery Bar™, at the corner of Bleecker and the Bowery:  “Warm in the winter and cool in the summer: serving fine drinks and comestibles from 7am to 4am seven days a week. Try Bob’s 'Homemade' Scrapple Sandwich, the sure cure for even the most persistent hangover!”) "D"