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Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
Samuel Johnson’s dictionary, the first comprehensive tome documenting the English language, is an occasionally fascinating read. Remarkably there isn’t an online version, but if you can get hold of a copy or read the Wikipedia page, it’s great to dip into. Some choice excerpts:
Dull: Not exhilaterating (sic); not delightful; as, to make dictionaries is dull work.
Network: Any thing reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections.
Oats: A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland appears to support the people.
Patron: One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is paid with flattery.
Reticulated: Made of network; formed with interstitial vacuities.
Johnson wrote definitions for over 40,000 words, illustrating them with around 110,000 imaginative quotations. He hired 5 Scotsmen as copywriters, despite his well known disdain for the Scottish (he wasn’t keen on the French either - see the entry for ‘ruse’).
Johnson himself is a fascinating and slightly grotesque figure, whom we know a great deal about thanks to intensely comprehensive biographies. Fascinating.