In today's post there arrived a copy of "Johnson's Dictionary: A Modern Selection" edited by E.L. McAdam Jr. and George Milne (New York: Random House [Pantheon], 1963). This is an abridgement of Dr. Samuel Johnson's original 2300-page "Dictionary of the English Language" first published in 1755. It contains a definition of lexicologist (which Johnson most certainly was), to wit:
"A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words." (p. 233) As something of a minor lexicologist myself, I very much appreciated this.