The Reverend George William Lemon (1726 – 4 October 1797) was the author of an early etymological dictionary of the English language, published in 1783.
[1] He was Rector of Geytonthorpe, Vicar of East Walton, Norfolk from 1755, and master of Norwich School from 1769 to 1778.
Twenty years before the discovery of Grimm's law, Lemon could not be expected to give sound etymologies of Germanic words, and promptly derived acorn from Greek akros, or addle from Greek athlos.
Yet Lemon's dictionary is of historical interest as a pioneer work of philology on the eve of the discoveries of William Jones, Friedrich Schlegel and Rasmus Rask that mark the beginning of modern linguistics.
71 [1], 171-177) reviewed Lemon's dictionary as an extraordinary and delectable work: The author, perched on his etymological dunghill, claps his wings, and crows in defiance of all who have scraped the dunghill before him.