The Deipnosophists and Dr Johnson

Abstract

Abstract His admirers assert that the first English dictionary was Johnson’s but this is denied by antagonists who cite late medieval and early Renaissance lexicographers such as Thomas Elyot, Thomas Cooper and John Florio. The admirers emphasize Johnson’s merit above earlier authors and assert innovations to the form. This paper shows both views are limited and lexicography has a much greater antiquity seen in Athenaeus and earlier. All these works, which were composed over thousands of years, did not come from Evolution where Athenaeus is a common ancestor. Instead they are products of literary Spontaneous Generation, showing that Homo est animal grammaticum.