Of course, as every schoolboy knows, it was Dr Samuel Johnson who wrote the first dictionary, and those are his words you are quoting. Another of his famous definitions was of a lexicographer (i.e., a dictionary writer) as "a harmless drudge".
He is also creditted with saying "No madam, I smell, you stink"! That actually has a surprising double meaning, as the meaning of those words was in the process of changing when he made the remark, as formerly to smell meant only to detect an odour and to stink meant to produce one, even if it were pleasant. IMHO, it makes it all the more amusing that the meanings were in the process of changing to what you would understand today as the words left his lips.
Johnson is known today mainly for quotable witticisms, but many of them were actually printed as dictionary definitions.
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