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Which earlier dictionary writer did Samuel Johnson use as a resource while compiling his dictionary?
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Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson, oil on canvas by Sir Joshua Reynolds, c. 1756; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
While compiling his monumental A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), Samuel Johnson utilized the Dictionarium Britannicum (1730) by Nathan Bailey as a repository for his work.1
Additionally, for his etymological research, Johnson relied on the Etymologicum Anglicanum by Franciscus Junius the Younger, which was edited by Edward Lye and became available in 1743.1