... or so Dr Johnson must have believed. He defined lexicographer, in his first dictionary, as "a harmless drudge".

To be a really good and prolific lexicographer it appears the only place to be is clapped up in Broadmoor on a lifer. Committing murder while insane, it appears, is good for the lexicographical soul.

Seriously, though, nothing to do with words can be considered a "science", at least in the same way as physics or chemistry is. Compiling a dictionary which meets the objective of the provision of information about words in an accessible way has got to be more a matter of good judgement than of perfect methodology.


The idiot also known as Capfka ...