Word.ws English Dictionary

Johnsonese

Johnsonese proper noun: the literary style of Dr. Samuel Johnson; an inflated, stilted, or pompous style, affecting classical words.

Proper noun

Johnsonese

  1. The literary style of Dr. Samuel Johnson; an inflated, stilted, or pompous style, affecting classical words.
    • It is a sort of broken Johnsonese, a barbarous patois, bearing the same relation to the language of Rasselas which the gibberish of the negroes of Jamaica bears to the English of the House of Lords1843, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Madame D'Arblay”, in Edinburgh Review

Johnsonese meaning in Tamil

Johnsonese in Tamil

மரபு எழுத்து நடை

Origin of Johnsonese

From Johnson + -ese.

Questions about Johnsonese

What does Johnsonese mean?
Johnsonese means the literary style of Dr. Samuel Johnson; an inflated, stilted, or pompous style, affecting classical words.
What is Johnsonese in Tamil?
Johnsonese in Tamil is மரபு எழுத்து நடை. See Johnsonese meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is Johnsonese?
Johnsonese is a proper noun.

Words near Johnsonese in the dictionary

  1. Johnson's rule
  2. Johnson-Lindenstrauss lemma
  3. Johnson-McMillin syndrome
  4. Johnson-Munson syndrome
  5. Johnson-Nyquist noise
  6. Johnsonese
  7. johnsongrass
  8. johnsongrasses
  9. Johnsonian
  10. Johnsoniana
  11. Johnsonianism

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Johnsonese (page history and authors); Johnsonese (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Johnsonese.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/johnsonese. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.