In Samuel Johnson's pathbreaking "A Dictionary of the English Language", for which word did he offer the definition "A harmless drudge..."?

"A Dictionary of the English Language" is among the most influential dictionaries in the history of the English language. There was dissatisfaction with the dictionaries of the period, so in June 1746 a group of London booksellers contracted Johnson to write a dictionary for the sum of 1,500 guineas (equivalent to about £220,000 in 2016).

Johnson took nearly nine years to complete the work, although he had claimed he could finish it in three. Remarkably, he did so single-handedly, with only clerical assistance to copy out the illustrative quotations that he had marked in books. Unlike most modern lexicographers, Johnson introduced humour into several of his definitions. Among the best-known are:

• "Excise: a hateful tax levied upon commodities and adjudged not by the common judges of property but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid"
• "Oats: a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people"
• "Lexicographer: a writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge that busies himself in tracing the original and detailing the signification of words"

So, with his "Lexicographer" entry, Johnson was making a little joke at his own expense.