April 15, 1755

April 15, 1755 marks the publication of a dictionary considered a hallmark in lexographical history: The Dictionary of the English Language. The creative and quixotic and monumental work of Samuel Johnson, is one reason this literary giant received in 1762 a pension from the King.

Before the definitions of  "Catagmatick"(the quality of consolidating the parts) and "Catapasm" (medicinal powders) and "Cataphonicks" (the doctrine of reflected sounds), and after, "casual'"(accidental) we find

"cat": "a domestic animal, reckoned by naturalists as the lowest order of the leonine species."

Samuel Johnson was a famous cat lover. Is this reflected in his definition? Flipping over some pages we find the entry for lion defines the leonine reference as to:" the fiercest and most magnanimous of four-footed beasts." When Johnson references the leonine dimension of the domestic cat he may be expressing the objective reality of felines. 

The difference between the definitions of Johnson and Noah Webster, discussed yesterday,  is more than a difference of centuries or continents. It is a difference of hearts.