[6] Bailey, with John Kersey the younger, was a pioneer of English lexicography, and changed the scope of dictionaries of the language.
Up to the early eighteenth century, English dictionaries had generally focused on "hard words" and their explanation, for example those of Thomas Blount and Edward Phillips in the generation before.
With a change of attention, to include more commonplace words and those not of direct interest to scholars, the number of headwords in English dictionaries increased spectacularly.
Now often known as the "Scott-Bailey" or "Bailey-Scott" dictionary, it contained relatively slight revisions by Scott, but massive plagiarism from Johnson's work.
[8] Bailey also published a spelling-book in 1726; All the Familiar Colloquies of Erasmus Translated (1733), of which a new edition appeared in 1878;[12] 'The Antiquities of London and Westminster,' 1726; 'Dictionarium Domesticum,' 1736 (which was also a cookbook on recipes, including fried chicken[13]); Selections from Ovid and Phædrus; and 'English and Latin Exercises.'
Dictionary of N. Bailey', with an introduction by W. E. A. Axon (English Dialect Society), giving biographical and bibliographical details.