Johnsonian
English
Etymology
Johnson + -ian
Adjective
Johnsonian (comparative more Johnsonian, superlative most Johnsonian)
- Of or pertaining to the English writer and lexicographer Samuel Johnson (1709–1784), or characteristic of his style.
- 1853, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 5, in Cranford:
- With my idea of the rector derived from a picture in the dining-parlour, stiff and stately […] —it was strange to read these letters. They were full of eager, passionate ardour; short homely sentences, right fresh from the heart (very different from the grand Latinised, Johnsonian style of the printed sermon preached before some judge at assize time).
- 1926, Suniti Kumar Chatterji, The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language, page 134:
- Literary Bengali of prose, during the greater part of the 19th century, was thus a doubly artificial language ; and, with its forms belonging to Middle Bengali, and its vocabulary highly Sanskritised, it could only be compared to a ‘ Modern English ’ with a Chaucerian grammar and a super-Johnsonian vocabulary, if such a thing could be conceived.
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- (UK politics) Of or pertaining to Boris Johnson (born 1964), English politician and prime minister of the United Kingdom from 2019 to 2022.
- 2019 August 29, “The Guardian view on Johnson v parliament: an unelective dictatorship”, in The Guardian:
- To stop no-deal, MPs must adopt some Johnsonian ruthlessness and be ready to bring down the prime minister and put someone else, probably Jeremy Corbyn, in his place.
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Synonyms
- (of or pertaining to Boris Johnson): Borisian
Noun
Johnsonian (plural Johnsonians)
- An enthusiast of the works of Samuel Johnson.
- A supporter of Boris Johnson.