Dirk Peter "Dick" Blok (7 January 1925 – 6 February 2019) was a Dutch scholar of

onomastics Onomastics (or, in older texts, onomatology) is the study of the etymology, history, and use of proper names. An ''orthonym'' is the proper name of the object in question, the object of onomastic study. Onomastics can be helpful in data mining, w ...

. He was director of the

Meertens Institute The Meertens Institute (Dutch ''Meertens Instituut'') in Amsterdam is a research institute for Dutch language and culture within the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (''Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen'' or KNAW). ...

between 1965 and 1986. He succeeded founding director

Piet Meertens Pieter Jacobus (Piet) Meertens (Middelburg (Zeeland), Middelburg, 6 September 1899 – Amstelveen, 28 October 1985) was a Dutch scholar of literature, dialects, and ethnology. He founded the institutes which later merged into the Meertens Instituut ...

. In 1979, during Blok's rule as director, the Institute was named after Meertens. Blok fictionally featured in the book cycle ' by J. J. Voskuil, which was based on figures at the Meertens Institute, where Voskuil worked as well. Blok was born in

Oegstgeest Oegstgeest () is a town and municipality in the province of South Holland in the western Netherlands. Its population was in . Etymology The portion ''geest'' in the name refers to the geest lands, which were excavated in the seventeenth cent ...

. He studied Medieval history at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

, where he obtained a degree in 1953. In 1960 he earned his doctorate cum laude at the same university under J.F. Niermeyer with a thesis titled ''Een diplomatisch onderzoek van de oudste particuliere oorkonden van Werden''. Blok had a long teaching career at the University of Amsterdam on the topic of settlement history related to the onomastics of place names, first a teaching assignment from 1967 to 1976, and subsequently as extraordinary lector (1976–1980), extraordinary professor (1980–1986) and finally as full professor from 1986 to 1990, when he took up emeritus status. He died on 6 February 2019, aged 94. Blok was elected a member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

in 1984.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blok, Dick 1925 births 2019 deaths Etymologists Linguists from the Netherlands Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences People from Oegstgeest University of Amsterdam alumni University of Amsterdam faculty