ABSTRACT
Itisimpossibletoknowpreciselyhow muchJohnsonusedtheinterleavedcopyof Bailey'sdictionaryincompilinghiswordlist. Theappearanceofawordinbothdictionariesdoesnotnecessarilymean,ofcourse, thatJohnsontookitfromBailey,especially sinceJohnsonwascollectingliteraryquotationsforalmosteveryentryandmayhave collectedmanybeforereferringtoBailey.5 Theinterleaveddictionarycouldsupplya sizablebasicwordlistbutnoquotations.A studyoftheletter£-chosenforitssize,for itslocation(allowingfortheestablishment ofasetworkingpattern),andforcomparison withProfessorReed'sstudyofWebsterindicatesthatJohnsondidnottrytobeas inclusiveashispredecessor;Bailey's1,641 entries6underLconsiderablyexceedJohnson's1,126.Johnson'swasinnosensea dictionaryofhardwords.Forthemostpart
NOTES AND DOCUMENTS 339 he lavished his care on defining and illustrating the various senses of words which would be commonly spoken and read. As a result, he omitted many words which Bailey included-words like "labarum," "labes," "laborariis," "labrusca," and "lacca"-but his treatment of the common word "lace" is far superior to Bailey's. Under the letter L, Johnson included 394 words not found in Bailey's dictionary, but he omitted 909.
