Read the sentence from Samuel Johnson’s preface to A Dictionary of the English Language.And such is the fate of hapless lexicography, that not only darkness, but light, impedes and distresses it; things may be not only too little, but too much known, to be happily illustrated.

“Hapless” means unlucky or unfortunate. Johnson describes lexicography as “hapless” because both too little knowledge (“darkness”) and too much knowledge (“light”) can make the dictionary writer’s task difficult. So “unlucky or unfortunate; pitiable” is the best choice.

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