IJCAES Special Issue on
Basic, Applied & Social Sciences, Volume II, October 2012
[ISSN: 2231-4946]
Social Status of Women in 18th Century English
Society As Reflected In a Dictionary of the
English Language of Dr. Johnson
Karabi Hazarika
Research Scholar, CMJ University, Shillong, Meghalaya
[email protected]
Abstract— Every product of literature and language is found to carry some important characteristics
of the Age as well the prevailing customs and beliefs of society it represents. As a literary document, a
dictionary can also provide us with social information of a particular age in which the compilation the
dictionary takes place. Dr.Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), the most influential
dictionary in the history of the English language, is taken for the study to find out how women are
presented through the definitions of the women related words. The English language is regarded by the
feminists as “man-made” that reflects the cultural values of men. The study is an attempt to find out
sexism in English language reflected in the selected dictionary by Dr. Johnson which can also provide a
clear picture of the social status of women in the 18 th century where the compilation of the dictionary
took place.
Keywords— Word-definitions, Women, Status, Sexism.
I.
INTRODUCTION
The status of women in society has become a very important and burning question in almost all the civilizations
of the world. In the eighteenth century English society, as in all other societies, there seems to be a certain cultural,
traditional belief that men and women are different from each other. Whatever its origin, this belief has persisted
throughout centuries in almost all civilizations. The society treats boys and girls as they grow up, on an unequal
basis.
The 18th century is a very sign significant period in order to analyse how the society at that time dealt with
women. The idea of the superiority of men and their ownership of women is eloquently and terribly supported by a
glance at English laws involving women. They were ignorant of politics and such important worldly matters. In
addition to financial pressures, the severe restrictions, laws and customs of eighteenth and nineteenth century
England placed on women made them look to marriage as a means of stability and made women even more
dependent on men. Middle class women in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were not expected to think of
themselves as members of the nation of individuals. It is found that society has generally favoured one sex over the
other. And due to its favoured position, this one sex was able to excel in public life, that is, science, philosophy,
religion and politics, which in turn justified its preference to begin with.
Of late new genre of literary criticism has been emerging- dictionary criticism from feminist view point. It
includes critique of any vocabulary to identify sexist /gender bias words, redefined and re-coined words to
neutralize such bias and to establish a gender neutral vocabulary .The purging of sexist words like chairman, Mrs,
Miss etc is an indication of the strengthening of such trend. Each and every word, spoken or written is now liable to
go under the anvil for the scrutiny of feministic hammer. So it is in the fitness of things that we begin our scrutiny
from the beginning. Dr.Johnson‘s A Dictionary of the English Language being first ever comprehensive dictionary
in English, naturally caught of attention. Here is an analysis of the first edition of Dr. Johnson‘s dictionary.
II.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Robin Lakoff is a remarkable name who addresses the relationship between language and gender in her
Language and Woman’s Place(1975). She says that women experience linguistic discrimination in two ways: in the
way they are taught to use language, and in the way general language use treats them. In The Feminist Critique of
Language Cameron (1990) also suggests that language could be seen as a reflection of sexist culture; or ... it could
be seen as a carrier of ideas and assumptions which become, through their constant re-enactment in discourse, so
familiar and conventional we miss their significance.... Thus sexism is not merely reflected but acted out and thus
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Karabi Hazarika
reinforced in a thousand banal encounters. (p. 14).Women's real experiences are hidden and obscured behind a
language that insists on their passivity and silence. A lot of works have been done on women related problems all
over the world. But so far as dictionary is concerned, hardly any work has been done to find out the words related to
women. Therefore here is an attempt to go through a few definitions of the words related to women in the pages of
Dr.Johnson‘s A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) to find out how women are projected in the dictionary.
III.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Robin Lakoff‘s Language and Woman’s Place, published in 1975 is one of the first publications to address the
relationship between language and gender. Robin Lakoff stated that there is a direct correlation between the inequity
in language and the inequity in men and women‘s social statuses.
A dictionary is not only the storehouse of vocabulary of a certain linguistic group, but also the treasure house of
all its knowledge and wisdom. Dr. Samuel Johnson published his A Dictionary of The English Language, the most
influential dictionary in the history of the English language in 1755, documenting 40,000 words and along with
providing 114,000 quotations. In all, there are over 114,000 quotations in the dictionary. Johnson's most significant
innovation was the inclusion of over 100,000 quotations from more than 500 authors to illustrate the words he
defined as well as provided titbit of wisdom along the way. It is a treasure house of stories, unknowable
information, home truths, snippets of trivia, and lost myths. As a dictionary is a social document, it is important to
analyse the meaning and explanation of the words related to women to know the status of women in society of a
particular age.
IV.
METHODOLOGY
The first ever edition of Dr.Johnson‘s A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) is taken for the study. In
this study the focus would be centred round each and every word related to women body parts, sex and any other
words directly or indirectly related to women. Adopting inductive and empirical method, lexicographical and
etymological analysis would be conducted to understand the research problem.
V.
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
Historically and sociologically, English society is man-oriented and man-centred. It is the inequality status
among men and women led sex discrimination. In this sense, sexism in the English language is rooted in the
different attitudes towards men and women. Sexism, by definition, is a social relationship in which males have
authority and power over females. Linguistic sexism is rooted in the social inequality between men and women.
This study intends to analyze the presence of sexism in English language and the social attitude towards the women
of the the 18th century England on the basis of the women related words of A Dictionary of the English Language
by Dr.Johnson.
VI.
DEFINITIONS OF WOMEN RELATED WORDS IN THE DICTIONARY OF DR. JOHNSON
Dictionaries tell us about immigration, assimilation, invasion, aggression, conflict, harmony, loss of innocence,
isolationism, industrialization, discrimination. Dr. Samuel Johnson's dictionary is an asset of English language that
all educated households of the times possessed. The Dictionary bears witness to 18th century British culture, while
mapping and taming the wilderness that was the English language. Adopting lexicographical and etymological
analysis, let‘s examine some women related words from Dr. Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English
Language to know the social status of the women of that society in 18 th century England:
a) Bride-(n) –Signifies a beautiful woman; a woman newly married.
b) Bi`gamy -(n)-(in the canon law)The marriage of a second wife or of a widow or a woman already
debouched.
c) Critik-(n)- A man skilled in the art of judging the literature ;a man able to distinguish the faults and
beauties of writing.
d) Cu`ckingstool-(n)-An engine invented for the punishment of scolds and unquiet woman.
e) Di`gamy- (n)-Second marriage; marriage to a second wife after the death of the first; having two wives at
once.
f) Do`wer-(n)-That which the wife bringeth to her husband in marriage; that which the widow possesses;the
gifts of a husband for a wife.
g) Effe`minacy-(adj)-Admission of the qualities of a woman; softness; unmanly delicacy;mean submission.
h) Emascula`tion-(adj)-womanish qualities; unmanly softness.
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Social Status of Women in 18th Century English Society As Reflected In a Dictionary of the English Language of Dr.
Johnson
i)
j)
k)
l)
m)
n)
o)
p)
Gi`rlish (adj)-Suiting a girl; youthful.
Inhe`ritress-(n)-A woman that inherits.
La`dy-like-(adj)-Soft; delicate; elegant.
Mi`dwife-(n)-A woman who assists women in childbirth.
Miss-(adj)-A term of honour to a young girl; a trumpet; a concubine; a whore; a prostitute.
Pa`rcener (n)-when one dispossessed of an estate and having issue of daughters or his sisters be his heirs.
Poly`gamist-(n)-one that holds the lawfulness of more wife than one at a time.
Re`gulate-(v)-to adjust by rule and method. (―...no wife has power to regulate her husband‘s life..‖—
Dryden)
q) Ri`dinghood-(n)-A hood used by women when they travel to bear off the rain.
r) Rule-(n)- Government; empire; sway; supreme command.(― I am ashame`d, that women should seek for
rule ,supremacy or sway, when they are bound to serve, love and obey.‖- Shakespeare)
s) Sta`teswoman-(n)-A woman that meddles with public affairs; in contempt.(―several object may innocently
ridiculed, as the passions of our stateswoman‖- Addison)
t) Vira`go (n)- A female warrior ; a woman with the qualities of a man; It is commonly used in detestation for
an impudent woman.
u) Wea`kness-(adj)- want of cognicy; want of resolution; foolishness of mind; with want of efficiency etc.(
―A woman and thence weakv) Weakness is thy excuse...‖-Milton)
w) Wo`man-(n) –A female of the human race. (Women in their nature are much more gay and joyous than
man; whether it be that their blood is more refined; their fibres more delicate,and their animal spirits more
light; vivacity is the gift of women, gravity that of man.)
x) Wo`manish – (adj)- Suitable to a woman; having the qualities of a woman.
y) Wo`rkwoman-(n)-A woman skilled in needle work; a woman who works for hire.
VII.
OBSERVATIONS:
The above discussion makes it clear how women were placed or treated in 18th century English language as
well as in society. Every work of art is a reflection of beliefs, customs or code of conduct of a society. It is found
that even in dictionaries some time women have been projected as inferior, servile, self-sacrificing and as essentially
instruments of sexual gratification. Simone de Beauvoir argued in her book The Second Sex that "all the negative
characteristics of humanity as men perceive them are projected onto women" (Cameron, 1992, p. 84). When talking
about gender in the English language, one must look at the masculine-feminine dichotomy that arises in the
vocabulary. In Dr. Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language, the word Di`gamy suggests the
prevalence of having two wives at the same time. The words Di`gamy, Poly`gamist give us an idea of the
prevalence of the practice of keeping more than one wife. When the word ‗bride’ generally means a woman newly
married or about to be married, here the given meaning is a beautiful woman; a woman newly married. It seems
that a bride is expected to be beautiful in the society of that period. Moreover the first and foremost traditional
motive for marriage was the economic or social consolidation during 18 th century in English society. The word
Critik is defined as- ‗a man‘ skilled in the art of judging the literature; ‗a man‘ able to distinguish the faults and
beauties of writing. Using of the word ‗a man‘ instead of ‗a person‘ deny the social acceptance of the ability of a
women as a literary scholar. The word Cu`ckingstool, also suggests the domination man folk over women during the
period of Dr. Johnson. Likewise the words Effe`minacy, Emascula`tion , Gi`rlish , La`dy-like ,Miss, Wo`manish etc
reveal that women used to occupy a subordinate position and enjoyed limited freedom in the patriarchal society
though a reappraisal of the status of women was attempted initially in Britain during the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. The degree of attention, which women received, was unprecedented, as they had remained so long in
obscurity as the second sex. Women were thought to have keener nerves than men and it was also believed that
women were more emotional than men. The word Pa`rcener suggests the denial of the right of inheritance by
women during that Age. It was especially important for the gentry families to have a son in order to continue the
name and the strength of the family. In Johnson‘s eighteenth-century culture, parents desired male heirs, as men
were traditionally perceived as more important than women. (Life of Johnson 69). Inheritance was patrilineal in
general and this was the natural outlook of the period but of course there were exceptions to this generalization.
Women could also inherit or be given land. In the absence of male heirs, women could inherit land. In most cases,
the land upon marriage was managed and controlled by the husband. The quotations given for the wordsRe`gulate(by Dryden), Rule( by Shakespeare), Wea`kness (by Milton), Sta`teswoman (by Addision) Wo`man (by
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Karabi Hazarika
Johnson himself) show how women were desired to be and treated even by the learned section of the English. Social
decorum taught them to practice politeness instead of displaying their intelligence and to think of themselves
collectively, in terms of universals of the sex, instead of contemplating individual autonomy, talents, capacities,
rights etc. On the other hand, Dr.Johnson‘s personal attitude is found to be quite positive towards women if we
examine his other works and his own remarks towards women .But being a son of the English soil it is obvious to be
influenced by the society of his time.
VIII.
CONCLUSION
As a social document Dr. Johnson‘s dictionary is found to encompass some objectionable meanings/definitions
of some women-related words. Johnson‘s contemporaries delineate Johnson as chauvinist, while many recent critics
view Johnson as a feminist who considered women as essentially equal to men because, as a compiler of the
dictionary, they believe Dr.Johnson could not but include those words/meanings related to women which are now-adays considered to be offensive. Women had been considered naturally the weaker sex, built biologically,
emotionally and socially for their role as child bearer and homemaker. Such socially sanctioned beliefs can be
observed, even today, in many cultures where they serve as the justification for such inequitable treatment of
women. It is the high time to erase the sexist definitions, conceptions from the language and improve women‘s
status in modern society.
REFERENCES
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
Cameron, D. (1992). Feminism and linguistic theory. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Cameron, D. (1990). The feminist critique of language. New York: Routledge, Chapman, and Hall.
Craig, William Henry (1895) Dr. Johnson and the Fair Sex. Folcroft, PA: Folcroft Library, Edition, 1977. Orig. London: Sampson Low,
Marston & Co.
Dr.Samuel Johnson A Dictionary of the English Language, Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding Microsoft Corporation.
Kemmerer, Kathleen Nulton (1998) A Neutral Being Between the Sexes: Samuel Johnson’s. Sexual Politics. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell UP.
7. Lakoff, Robin (1975) Language and Woman’s Place. New York: Harper & Row.
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