Tuesday, April 29, 2014

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. 

to begin selections from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary, click here

for previous selection from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary, click here

to begin at the beginning of Boswell's Life of Johnson, click here

for previous chapter of Boswell's Life of Johnson, click here





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"



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