Allen Walker Read
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Allen Walker Read (June 2, 1906 – October 16, 2002) was an American etymologist and
lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoreti ...
. Born in Minnesota, he spent much of his career as a professor at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in New York. Read's work ''Classic American Graffiti'' is well regarded in the study of latrinalia and obscenity. His etymological career included his discovery of the origin of the word " OK", a longtime puzzle, and his scholarly study of the history and use of the common English vulgarity "
fuck ''Fuck'' is an English-language expletive. It often refers to the act of sexual intercourse, but is also commonly used as an intensifier or to convey disdain. While its origin is obscure, it is usually considered to be first attested to aro ...
."


Biography and career

Read was born in
Winnebago, Minnesota Winnebago is a city in Faribault County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 1,391 at the 2020 census. History Winnebago was originally called Winnebago City, and under the latter name was laid out in 1856. The city was named after th ...
.''The Times''
, November 8, 2002, obituary.
His one sister, Mary Jo, became a professor of geography at Eastern Illinois University. He earned a bachelor's degree from the
University of Northern Iowa The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) is a public university in Cedar Falls, Iowa. UNI offers more than 90 majors across the colleges of Business Administration, Education, Humanities, Arts, and Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences and gr ...
(called Iowa State Teachers College at the time) in 1925, a master's degree from the
University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...
in 1926, and studied at the University of Oxford as a
Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...
from 1928 to 1931. He was a repeated contributor to ''
American Speech ''American Speech'' is a quarterly academic journal of the American Dialect Society, established in 1925 and currently published by Duke University Press. It focuses primarily on the English language used in the Western Hemisphere, but also publis ...
'' by 1931. Read's 1934 article in ''American Speech'', titled "An Obscenity Symbol", is a study of the word "fuck" from a sociological perspective. In 2014, Jesse Sheidlower, the president of the
American Dialect Society The American Dialect Society (ADS), founded in 1889, is a learned society "dedicated to the study of the English language in North America, and of other languages, or dialects of other languages, influencing it or influenced by it." The Society ...
, called it "the most important article" written about the term, noting that ironically, Read's 14-page essay avoided using the word directly, referring to it euphemistically instead.


''Classic American Graffiti''

Read's first extended work, ''Lexical Evidence from Folk Epigraphy in Western North America: A Glossarial Study of the Low Element in the English Vocabulary'', was privately published at his own expense in Paris in 1935 since its description of bathroom
graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...
was considered too racy for American publishers. Even then, the printing was limited to 75 copies and contained a disclaimer that it should be "restricted to students of linguistics, folk-lore, abnormal psychology and allied branches of social science." It was eventually published in the United States in 1977, under the title ''Classic American Graffiti'', , by Reinhold Aman's Maledicta Press. The work was described as a classic "model study" of latrinalia that "deserves the attention of any serious student of American language" in a 1979 review, which noted that even then it remained hard to access and "excessively rare." It contains some of the earliest documentation in English of words used by the homosexual community, although Read never recorded the word "gay", implying that the term was not used to mean homosexual during this time period. The work also contained Read's concept of the ''inverted taboo'', in which some people delight in vulgarity because of its illicit nature.


Etymological career

From 1938 onwards, he worked intermittently on a dictionary of Britishisms, but was never able to complete it during his life. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, he did his service with the
Military Intelligence Division The Military Intelligence Division was the military intelligence branch of the United States Army and United States Department of War from May 1917 (as the Military Intelligence Section, then Military Intelligence Branch in February 1918, then Mil ...
working on an ''American Military Definition Dictionary and Military Phrase Books.'' He was a chaired professor at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in New York City from 1945 until 1975. In 1948, H.L. Mencken wrote that Read ''probably knows more about early Americanisms than anyone else on earth.'' The origin of "OK", a common English phrase, had been considered one of the language's biggest etymological mysteries, with a number of competing theories. Read unveiled the actual origin of the word in a series of articles published in ''American Speech'' between 1963 and 1964. This achievement ''The Economist'' described as "the pinnacle of his career" to "envious fellow etymologists", but Read considered it just "an agreeable diversion from his main work." Read also successfully traced the origins of the words "dixie" and "podunk", and managed to attribute the first use of "the almighty dollar" to
Washington Irving Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...
. He wrote the entry for "dictionary" in the
Encyclopaedia Britannica An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...
. Read's career included studies of euphemisms,
graffiti Graffiti (plural; singular ''graffiti'' or ''graffito'', the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from s ...
,
slang Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-gro ...
,
pig Latin Pig Latin is a language game or argot in which words in English are altered, usually by adding a fabricated suffix or by moving the onset or initial consonant or consonant cluster of a word to the end of the word and adding a vocalic syllable ...
, doubletalk, and adult baby talk. Read served as the head of the International Linguistic Association, and also as the President of the
Semiotic Society of America The Semiotic Society of America is an interdisciplinary professional association serving scholars from many disciplines with common interests in semiotics, the study of signs and sign-systems. It was founded in 1975 and includes members from the Un ...
in 1980.


Personal life

He married Charlotte Schuchardt, director of the Institute of
General Semantics General semantics is concerned with how events translate to perceptions, how they are further modified by the names and labels we apply to them, and how we might gain a measure of control over our own cognitive, emotional, and behavioral respons ...
, in 1953. They remained together until she died in July 2002.''Who Was Who in North American Name Study''
, American Name Society, accessed February 15, 2007.
He died in New York City in September 2002. They had no children.


References


External links



on goodbyemag.com. {{DEFAULTSORT:Read, Allen Walker 1906 births 2002 deaths Etymologists American semioticians American Rhodes Scholars Philosophers from Minnesota People from Winnebago, Minnesota Presidents of the Semiotic Society of America