Selections from Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary: “K”

Edited by Dan Leo, Horace P. Sternwall Professor of Archaic Language, Texas Hold ‘em Club Coach, Olney Community College; author of Bozzie and Dr. Sam: A Visit to the Knocking Shop; the Olney Community College Press.

Illustrations by rhoda penmarq, with the assistance of roy dismas (inks) and eddie el greco (lettering); a penmarq studios™/danny thomas co-production.

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Kalendar.  An account of time. Let this pernicious hour Stand as accursed in the kalendar. Shakespeare's Macbeth. *** to Keelhale. To punish in the seamens way, by dragging the criminal under water on one side of the ship and up again on the other. *** Ken. View; reach of sight. Lo! within a ken, our army lies. Shakesp. Henry IV. *** Kercheift. Dressed; hooded.                     The evening comes Kercheift in a comely cloud, While racking winds are piping loud. Milton. *** Kermes.  Kermes is a roundish body, of the bigness of a pea, and of a brownish red colour, covered when most perfect with a purplish grey dust. It contains a multitude of little distinct granules, soft, and when crushed yield a scarlet juice. It is found adhering to a kind of holm oak, and till lately was generally understood to be a vegetable excrescence; but we now know it to be the extended body of an animal parent, filled with a numerous offspring, which are the little red granules.  *** Kern. Irish foot soldier; an Irish boor. Out of the fry of these rake-hell horseboys, growing up in knavery and villainy, are their kearn supplied. Spenser. *** Kibe. An ulcerated chilblain; a chap in the heel caused by the cold. *** Kick. A blow with the foot. What, are you dumb? Quick, with your answer, quick, before my foot salutes you with a kick. Dryden. *** Kine. Plural from cow. A field I went, amid' the morning dew, To milk my kine. Gay. *** Kite.   1. A bird of prey that infests the farms, and steals the chickens. 2. A name of reproach denoting rapacity. Detested kite! thou liest. Shakes. King Lear. 3. A fictitious bird made of paper.  *** Knapsack. The bag which a soldier carries on his back; a bag of provisions. If you are for a merry jaunt, I'll try for once who can foot it farthest: there are hedges in Summer, and barns in Winter to be found: I with my knapsack, and you with your bottle at your back: we'll leave honour to madmen, and riches to knaves, and travel 'till we come to the ridge of the world. Dryden's Spanish Fryar. *** To knock. To affect or change in any respect by blows. How do you mean removing him? — Why, by making him incapable of Othello's place; knocking out his brains. Shakespeare's Othello. *** To know. Not to be ignorant. Not to know of things remote, but know That which before us lies in daily life, Is the prime wisdom. Milton. *** To Knubble. To beat *** Knuff. A lout. The Country knuffs, Hob, Dick, and Hick. With clubs and clouted shoon, Shall fill up Dussendale With slaughtered bodies soon.  Hayward. *** (Our illustrated adaptation of Boswell’s Life of Johnson will resume next week. Classix Comix is made possible in part through the sponsorship of Bob’s Bowery Bar™, at the corner of Bleecker and the Bowery: “What better way to escape the hustle and bustle of the alleged holiday season than to reward oneself with a visit to Bob’s Bowery Bar™ and a steaming tankard or two of Bob’s famous Hot Spiced Christmas Grog?” – Horace P. Sternwall, host of The Bob’s Bowery Bar Bible Stories Hour, exclusively on the Dumont Television Network, Sundays at 1pm, EST.) "L"