Selections from Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary: “Q”

Edited by Dan Leo, LL.D., Assistant Professor of Young Adult Fiction, Assistant Scrabble Team Coach, Olney Community College; author of Bozzie and Dr. Sam: The Case of the Scolding Quean; the Olney Community College Press.

Artwork personally supervised by rhoda penmarq (layout, pencils, inks and colors by roy dismas; lettering by eddie el greco); a penmarq productions™/bob’s bowery bar productions™ co-production.

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Quab. A sort of fish. *** Quack.  A vain boastful pretender to physick; one who proclaims his own medical abilities in publick places. At the first appearance that a French quack made in Paris: a little boy walked before him, publishing with a shrill voice, "My father cures all sorts of distempers;" to which the doctor added in a grave manner, "The child says true."  Addison. *** Quadrivial.  Having four ways meeting in a point. *** Quadruped.  An animal that goes on four legs, as perhaps all beasts. Most quadrupeds, that live upon herbs, have incisor teeth to pluck and divide them.  Arbuthnot. *** Quaff.  To drink; to swallow in large draughts. He calls for wine; a health, quoth he, as if H'ad been abroad carousing to his mates After a storm, quafft off the muscadel, And threw the sops all in the sexton's face.  Shakesp. *** Quagmire.  A shaking marsh; a bog that trembles under the feet. Your hearts I'll stamp out with my horse's heels, And make a quagmire of your mingled brains.  Shakesp. *** To Quake.  To shake with cold or fear; to tremble. In fields they dare not fight where honour calls, The very noise of war their souls does wound, They quake but hearing their own trumpets sound.  Dryden *** Quality.  Disposition; temper. To-night we'll wander through the streets, and note The qualities of people.  Shakesp. Ant. and Cleopatra. *** Quean.  A worthless woman, generally a strumpet. As fit as the nail to his hole, or as a scolding quean to a wrangling knave.  Shakesp. *** Queen.  A woman who is sovereign of a kingdom. That queen Elizabeth lived sixty-nine, and reigned forty-five years, means no more than, that the duration of her existence was equal to sixty-nine, and the duration of her government to forty-five revolutions of the sun.  Locke. *** Queen-Apple.  A species of apple. The queen-apple is of the summer kind, and a good cyder apple mixed with others.  Mortimer's Husbandry. *** To Queme.  To please. An old word. *** Quidam.  Somebody. *** To Quob.  To move as the embryo does in the womb; to move as the heart does when throbbing. *** Quodlibetarian.  One who talks or disputes on any subject. *** Quondam.  Having been formerly. A ludicrous word. This is the quondam king, let's seize upon him. Shakesp. *** Quotidian.  Daily; happening every day. Nor was this a short fit of shaking, as an ague, but a quotidian fever, always increasing to higher inflammation.  King Charles. *** (Our illustrated adaptation of Boswell’s Life of Johnson will resume next week. Classix Comix is made possible through a generous endowment from the Bob’s Bowery Bar™ Endowment for the Cybernetic Arts: “One of my perennial favorites on the Bob’s Bowery Bar menu is ‘Bob’s Mom’s’ House-Cured Pickled Pig’s Feet, served with Mom’s special stoneground spicy mustard and Uneeda Biscuits – goes superbly with Bob’s famous basement-brewed bock!” – Horace P. Sternwall, host of Bob’s Bowery Bar’s Presents Horace P. Sternwall’s Tales of the Bizarre, exclusively on the Dumont Radio Network, Tuesdays at 10pm, EST.) "R"