Dr Johnson does TEFL
Even with all the things written about Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language, I think I might be the first to try adding some TEFL-style pointless elicitation. And so here goes… Try to work out which word he was defining in each case then scroll down the screen to check (it’s a bit like the classroom activities The Definition Game and Taboo):
1. belonging to an ass
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asinine
2. a hog dressed whole, in the West Indian manner
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barbecue
3. a stone in the bladder
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calculus
4. dependence on experience without knowledge or art; quackery
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empiricism
5. a man of violent passions
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fireman
6. one that carries his opinions to extravagance
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high-flier
7. to deprive a dog of something, nobody knows what, under his tongue, which is said to prevent him, nobody knows why, from running mad
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to worm
8. as much food as one’s hand can hold
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lunch
9. an insect whose bite is only cured by music
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tarantula
10. in copulation the female receives the male lying on her back
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elephant
11. an Abyssinian animal, taller than an elephant, but not so thick
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camelopard (= giraffe)
12. when its bowels are taken out, or it is wounded, it smells very agreeably
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crocodile
13. being waterish, fill the veins with crude and windy serosities
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cucumber
13. to emasculate; to effeminate; to soften
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to womanize
14. a word of slight contempt for a woman
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slut
15. a shed hanging out aslope from the main wall
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penthouse
16. a bottle, in which water is kept for inspection
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urinal
17. one who works upon lead
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plumber
18. to toss in a blanket, by way of penalty or contempt
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to blanket
19. something in which diseased parts are washed
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lavatory
20. sudden vehemence
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orgasm
21. a schoolmaster
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pedant
22. a lamb taken into the house
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pet
23. goods in the wife’s disposal
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paraphernalia
23. a kind name of a monkey
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pug
24. splendid; magnificient; grand
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pompous
25. a medical prescription
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recipe
26. one who strikes
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rapper
27. one who moves heavily and dully
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jogger
All from the surprisingly readable and interesting book Dr Johnson’s Dictionary (Defining the World) by Henry Hitchings, or is saying that just a sign I’ve been in TEFL too long?? Anyway, not quite as much fun as Robbie Coltrane as Dr Johnson in Blackadder Three.
