Johnsonese

Johnson's writings numerous passages written in that essentially vicious style to which the name Johnsonese has been cruelly given; but the searcher could not fail to find many passages guiltless of this charge.

Obiter Dicta Second Series Augustine Birrell 1891

"Johnsonese" Mr. Burke calls it ” doing himself less justice than anyone without an acute sense of irony could possibly conceive.

Restorations Adams, Robert M. 1966

Poems (after Poe, as a matter of course), political diatribes in Johnsonese periods in _De Bow's

Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, September, 1878 Various

_Andy-Johnsonese_ into constitutional phrase, to give these versions some show of logical arrangement, and to carry out, as best they may, their own objects, while professing boundless devotion to his.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 109, November, 1866 Various

In place of the old loose-footedness there is set up a preciosity which, in one direction, takes the form of unyielding affectations in the spoken language, and in another form shows itself in the heavy Johnsonese of current English writing—the Jargon denounced by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch in his Cambridge lectures.

Chapter 1. Introductory. 5. The General Character of American English Henry Louis 1921

And lucidity is just what modern Johnsonese lacks.

Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great Hubbard, Elbert, 1856-1915 1916

Only sophomores, and private secretaries who write speeches for able Congressmen, write Johnsonese.

Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great Hubbard, Elbert, 1856-1915 1916

Yet the fact is, Boswell ruined the literary reputation of Johnson by intimating that Johnson wrote Johnsonese; but that is a mistake.

Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great Hubbard, Elbert, 1856-1915 1916

The literary style of Mary Wollstonecraft's book is Johnsonese, but its thought forms the base of all that has come after.

Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great Hubbard, Elbert, 1856-1915 1916

The literary style of Rubens was Johnsonese all his life, and he made his meaning plain only by repetitions and many rhetorical flounderings.

Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Painters Hubbard, Elbert, 1856-1915 1916