Etch in Johnson's Dictionary

Dictionaries these days are neutral tomes -- or are meant to be; ideally, the author's voice or personality shouldn't be discernible at all. Johnson's Dictionary, however, has Johnson the man stamped all the way through it; his character and personality jump out at you from every page.

 

Here is the definition of the noun 'etch' (not the verb, which has a long, erudite entry): "a country word of which I know not the meaning". There are two citations, and these both turn up again in the OED over a century later. Etch is an alternative spelling of eddish, which means stubble or stubble-field, according to the OED.