Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Selections from Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary: “F”

Edited by Dan Leo, LL.D., Assistant Professor of Outdated Lexicography, Assistant Gin Rummy Team Coach, Olney Community College; author of Bozzie and Dr. Sam: Mrs. Piozzi’s Dilemma (the Olney Community College Press).

Illustrated by rhoda penmarq with the assistance of eddie el greco and roy dismas; a “rhoda penmarq studios™/horace p. sternwall productions™ co-production”.

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





Fabaceous.  Having the nature of a bean.



Facetious. Gay; cheerful; lively; merry; witty. It is used both of persons and sentiments.

Socrates, informed of some derogating speeches used of him behind his back, made this facetious reply, Let him beat me too when I am absent.



Facinerious. Wicked.

'Tis strange, 'tis very strange, that is the brief and the tedious of it; and he's of a most facinerious spirit that will not acknowledge it. Shakes. All's well that ends well.



Factious. Given to faction; loud and violent in a party; publickly dissensious; addicted to form parties and raise publick disturbances.



He is a traitor; let him to the Tower,

And crop away that factious pate of his. Shakes. Hen. VI.


Fairy. A kind of fabled beings supposed to appear in a diminutive human form, and to dance in the meadows, and reward cleanliness in houses.


Fart. Wind from behind.

Love is the fart

Of every heart;

It pains a man when 'tis kept close;

And others doth offend, when 'tis let loose.Suckling.



Farthingale. A hoop; circles of whalebone used to spread the petticoat to a wide circumference.

With silken coats, and caps, and golden rings

With ruffs, and cuffs, and farthingales, and things. Shakesp.

Fashionist. A follower of the mode; a fop; a coxcomb.

Fawn. To court by frisking before one: as a dog.

Felo-de-se. He that committeth felony by murdering himself.

Fopdoodle. A fool; an insignificant wretch.

Friend. One joined to another in mutual benevolence and intimacy: opposed to foe or enemy.

God's benison go with you, and with those

That would make good of bad, and friends of foes. Shakes.

Frog. A small animal with four feet, living both by land and water, and placed by naturalists among mixed animals, as partaking of beast and fish. There is likewise a small green frog that porches on trees, said to be venomous.



Poor Tom, that eats the swimming frog, the toad, the todpole. Shakespeare’s King Lear.


Fub. A plump chubby boy.

Fuddle. To make drunk.

Earnest brimming bowls

Leave every soul the table floating round,

And pavement faithless to the fuddled feet. Thoms. Autumn.

Fugh. An expression of abhorrence.

A very filthy fellow: how odiously he smells of his country garlick! fugh how he stinks of Spain! Dryd. Don Sebastian.

(Our illustrated abridgment of Boswell’s Life of Johnson will continue next week. This project is sponsored in part by the good folks at Bob’s Bowery Bar™, at the northwest corner of Bleecker and the Bowery: “Bob’s Bowery Bar – what my old friend Fredric Brown used to call ‘a good stop’. Be sure to try Bob’s ‘basement-brewed’ house bock, which I find a superb accompaniment to Bob’s ‘kosher dog ‘n’ kraut’ with ‘Bob’s Mom’s horseradish sauce’.” – Horace P. Sternwall, author and motivational speaker .)


"G"



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