On This Day In 1709.

[webbo3]

Dr Samuel Johnson was born

Samuel Johnson (born September 18, 1709, Lichfield, Staffordshire, England—died December 13, 1784,

I must say, I'm anaspeptic, phrasmotic, even compunctuous.

[ToraToraTora]

.....to have caused you such perricombobulations.

[Togo]

"Look, you want to show some high-level language but you also want your writing to seem natural... By stuffing advanced language into contexts that it doesn't naturally fit you are doing more harm than good."

[bookbinder]

...but he got the meaning of 'fetlock' wrong in his dictionary, didn't he?

[jno]

he was a bit Latinous, bookbinder

https://englishspellingproblems.wordpress.com/2018/11/12/how-johnson-worsened-english-spelling/

[douglas9401]

Probably just about time to move on.

[jourdain2]

Incontrafabulations to you Dr. J.  (I think that wasBlackadder)

[ToraToraTora]

contrafibularities Jourdain.

[jourdain2]

Thank you, I couldn't quite remember - I'll claim that one as my own.  Hooray!

[Peter Pedant]

bookbinder

pastern not fetlock

extensively covered here

https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question1849560.html#answer-13654002

 

[Peter Pedant]

sossiiiiiiiidge

did Johnson really forget to put in "sausage" ?

god it is lucky there is no news today

[jno]

he called a fetlock a pastern, didn't he? A grievous error, though I say this as someone who can't tell the rear end of a horse from a prime minister.

[Peter Pedant]

he was asked by leddy why he had defined pastern as the horse's ankle, and replied - sheer ignorance madam

not very clear - it seems to the the  finger bone (3rd metacarpal) that the horse walks on