Enlightenment Ideas in America Answers

Read the excerpts from Samuel Johnson’s preface to A Dictionary of the English Language.Which statement best describes the use of the underlined word in the excerpts?

Read the sentence from Samuel Johnson's preface to A Dictionary of the English Language.I have studiously endeavoured to collect examples and authorities from the writers before the restoration, whose works I regard as the wells of English undefiled, as the pure sources of genuine diction.

etymologiesdefinitionsomissionsquotations

Read the excerpt from Samuel Johnson’s preface to A Dictionary of the English Language.The two languages from which our primitives have been derived are the Roman and Teutonick: under the Roman I comprehend the French and provincial tongues; and under the Teutonick range the Saxon, German, and all their kindred dialects.

Read the sentence from Samuel Johnson's preface to A Dictionary of the English Language.It is the fate of those who toil at the lower employments of life, to be rather driven by the fear of evil, than attracted by the prospect of good; to be exposed to censure, without hope of praise.

Which word has a negative connotation?

Read the sentence from Samuel Johnson's preface to A Dictionary of the English Language.Wherever I turned my view, there was perplexity to be disentangled, and confusion to be regulated; choice was to be made out of boundless variety.

Read the excerpt from Samuel Johnson's preface to A Dictionary of the English Language.From the authours which rose in the time of Elizabeth, a speech might be formed adequate to all the purposes of use and elegance. If the language of theology were extracted from Hooker and the translation of the Bible; the terms of natural knowledge from Bacon; the phrases of policy, war, and navigation from Raleigh; the dialect of poetry and fiction from Spenser and Sidney; and the diction of common life from Shakespeare, few ideas would be lost to mankind, for want of English words, in which they might be expressed.It is not sufficient that a word is found, unless it be so combined as that its meaning is apparently determined by the tract and tenour of the sentence; such passages I have therefore chosen.

Read the excerpt from Samuel Johnson’s preface to A Dictionary of the English Language.But to COLLECT the WORDS of our language was a task of greater difficulty: the deficiency of dictionaries was immediately apparent; and when they were exhausted, what was yet wanting must be sought by fortuitous and unguided excursions into books, and gleaned as industry should find, or chance should offer it, in the boundless chaos of a living speech. My search, however, has been either skilful or lucky; for I have much augmented the vocabulary.