Johnsonese

English

Etymology

From Johnson +‎ -ese.

Proper noun

Johnsonese

  1. The literary style of Dr. Samuel Johnson; an inflated, stilted, or pompous style, affecting classical words.
    Hypernym: inkhornism
    • 1843, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Madame D'Arblay”, in Edinburgh Review:
      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 Lords

References

“Johnsonese”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

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