Walter William Skeat, (21 November 18356 October 1912) was a British
philologist
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
and
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
deacon. The pre-eminent British
philologist
Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...
of his time, he was instrumental in developing the English language as a higher education subject in the United Kingdom.
Life
Skeat was born in London to architect
[Interpreters of Early Medieval Britain, ed. Michael Lapidge, Oxford University Press (on behalf of the British Academy), 2002, p. 37] William Skeat, of Perry Hill,
Sydenham Sydenham may refer to:
Places Australia
* Sydenham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney
** Sydenham railway station, Sydney
* Sydenham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne
** Sydenham railway line, the name of the Sunbury railway line, Melbourne ...
,
later of Mount Street,
Park Lane
Park Lane is a dual carriageway road in the City of Westminster in Central London. It is part of the London Inner Ring Road and runs from Hyde Park Corner in the south to Marble Arch in the north. It separates Hyde Park to the west from ...
,
City of Westminster, and his wife Sarah, daughter of Timothy Bluck. The Skeat family were a branch of an ancient Surrey family, and were resident in the parish of
St George Hanover Square since the 1700s. He was educated at
King's College School
King's College School, also known as Wimbledon, KCS, King's and KCS Wimbledon, is a public school in Wimbledon, southwest London, England. The school was founded in 1829 by King George IV, as the junior department of King's College London an ...
(
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
),
Highgate School, and
Christ's College, Cambridge. He became a fellow at Christ's College in July 1860.
In 1860, Skeat was ordained an Anglican
deacon
A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chur ...
and married Bertha Clara. In December 1860, he became a
curate at
East Dereham, where he served during 1861 and most of 1862. From 1862 to 1863, Skeat served as the
curate at
Godalming, Surrey. In October 1864, he returned to Cambridge University as a mathematics lecturer, a position he held until 1871.
Skeat soon developed an interest in the history of the English language. In 1870, Skeat and
Henry Bradshaw collaborated on an edition on
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He wa ...
for the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
. However, the project fell through when Bradshaw failed to keep his commitment. In 1894, Skeat published a six-volume edition on Chaucer; a supplementary volume, ''Chaucerian Pieces'', was published in 1897.
In 1878, Skeat was elected the
Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon
The Elrington and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon is the senior professorship in Anglo-Saxon at the University of Cambridge.
The first chair was elected in 1878, when a gift endowed in 1867 by Joseph Bosworth, Rawlinsonian Professor of Ang ...
at
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
. He completed
Mitchell Kemble's edition of the ''Anglo-Saxon Gospels'', and did work both in
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
and the
Gothic language
Gothic is an extinct East Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the ''Codex Argenteus'', a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizeable text cor ...
. Skeat is best known for his work in
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
, and for his standard editions of Chaucer and
William Langland
William Langland (; la, Willielmus de Langland; 1332 – c. 1386) is the presumed author of a work of Middle English alliterative verse generally known as ''Piers Plowman'', an allegory with a complex variety of religious themes. The poem tr ...
's ''
Piers Plowman
''Piers Plowman'' (written 1370–86; possibly ) or ''Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman'' (''William's Vision of Piers Plowman'') is a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in un-rhymed, alliterative v ...
''.
Skeat was the founder and only president of the English Dialect Society from 1873 to 1896. The society's purpose was to collect materials for the publication of ''
The English Dialect Dictionary
''The English Dialect Dictionary'' (''EDD'') is the most comprehensive dictionary of English dialects ever published, compiled by the Yorkshire dialectologist Joseph Wright (1855–1930), with strong support by a team and his wife Elizabeth Mar ...
''. The society was dissolved in 1897.
Skeat is buried at the
Ascension Parish Burial Ground in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
.
Skeat's wife, Bertha Clara, born 6 February 1840, died 15 July 1924, is buried with him, as is a daughter
Bertha Marian Skeat who was a writer and headmistress.
[Kenneth Sisam, "Skeat, Walter William (1835–1912)", rev. Charlotte Brewer, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 200]
accessed 23 Feb 2017
/ref> His son was the anthropologist Walter William Skeat
Walter William Skeat, (21 November 18356 October 1912) was a British philologist and Anglican deacon. The pre-eminent British philologist of his time, he was instrumental in developing the English language as a higher education subject in th ...
. His grandsons include the noted palaeographer
Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US; ultimately from grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") is the study of historic writing systems and the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts, including the analysi ...
T. C. Skeat
Theodore Cressy Skeat (15 February 1907 — 25 June 2003) was a librarian at the British Museum, where he worked as Assistant Keeper (from 1931), Deputy Keeper (from 1948), and Keeper of Manuscripts and Egerton Librarian (from 1961 to 1972).
Skeat ...
and the stained glass painter Francis Skeat
Francis Walter Skeat (3 December 1909 – 31 August 2000) was an English glass painter who created over 400 stained glass windows in churches and cathedrals, both in England and overseas. Skeat was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow ...
.
Work
Etymology, lexicography, and place-name studies
In pure philology
Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...
, Skeat's principal achievement was his ''An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language'' (4 parts, 1879–1882; rev., and enlarged, 1910). While preparing the dictionary, he wrote hundreds of short articles on word origins for the London-based journal ''Notes and Queries
''Notes and Queries'', also styled ''Notes & Queries'', is a long-running quarterly scholarly journal that publishes short articles related to " English language and literature, lexicography, history, and scholarly antiquarianism".From the inne ...
''.
Skeat also coined the term ''ghost word
A ghost word is a word published in a dictionary or similarly authoritative reference work even though it had not previously had any meaning or been used intentionally. A ghost word generally originates from a typographical or linguistic error, t ...
'' and was a leading expert in this subject.[Skeat, Walter William; Presidential address on 'Ghost-Words' in: ''Transactions of the Philological Society, 1885–87'', pp. 350–373; Published for the society by Trübner & Co., Ludgate Hill, London, 1887.] Skeat was also a pioneer of place-name studies. His major publications in this field include:
''A Concise Dictionary of Middle English''
(1888), in conjunction with A. L. Mayhew
"A Glossary of Tudor and Stuart Words"
(1914) with A. L. Mayhew
''The place-names of Cambridgeshire''
(1901)
*''Place-names of Huntingdonshire'' (1902)
*''Place-names of Hertfordshire'' (1904)
*''Place-names of Bedfordshire'' (1906)
*''Place-names of Berkshire'' (1911)
*''Place-names of Suffolk'' (1913)
Editions
*''The Holy Gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
s in Anglo-Saxon, Northumbrian, and Old Mercian Versions'' (1871)
* Chaucer's ''A Treatise on the Astrolabe
''A Treatise on the Astrolabe'' is a medieval instruction manual on the astrolabe by Geoffrey Chaucer. It describes both the form and the proper use of the instrument, and stands out as a prose technical work from a writer better known for poet ...
'' (1872)
* ''Piers Plowman
''Piers Plowman'' (written 1370–86; possibly ) or ''Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman'' (''William's Vision of Piers Plowman'') is a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in un-rhymed, alliterative v ...
'' in three parallel texts (1886)
* ''The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He wa ...
'' (1894–97)
Skeat edited works for the Early English Text Society
The Early English Text Society (EETS) is a text publication society founded in 1864 which is dedicated to the editing and publication of early English texts, especially those only available in manuscript. Most of its volumes contain editions of ...
:
*''Bruce
The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been ...
'' of John Barbour John Barbour may refer to:
* John Barbour (poet) (1316–1395), Scottish poet
* John Barbour (MP for New Shoreham), MP for New Shoreham 1368-1382
* John Barbour (footballer) (1890–1916), Scottish footballer
* John S. Barbour (1790–1855), U. ...
*'' Pierce the Ploughman's Crede''
*''Havelok the Dane
''Havelok the Dane'', also known as ''Havelok'' or ''Lay of Havelok the Dane'', is a thirteenth-century Middle English romance considered to be part of the Matter of England.''Boundaries in medieval romance'', Neil Cartlidge, DS Brewer, 2008, , 9 ...
''
*''William of Palerne
''Guillaume de Palerme'' ("William of Palerne") is a French romance poem, later translated into English where it is also known as ''William and the Werewolf''. The French verse romance was composed , commissioned by Countess Yolande (who is gene ...
''
For the Scottish Text Society
The Scottish Text Society (STS) is a text publication society founded in 1882 to promote the study of Scottish literature. The Society publishes scholarly editions of important texts from the country's literary history, and has played a significa ...
:
*Skeat edited ''The Kingis Quair
''The Kingis Quair'' ("The King's Book") is a fifteenth-century poem attributed to James I of Scotland. It is semi-autobiographical in nature, describing the King's capture by the English in 1406 on his way to France and his subsequent imprisonmen ...
'',
*Skeat published an edition (2 vols., 1871) of Chatterton, with an investigation of the sources of the obsolete words used by Chatterton.
*Skeat published an edition of Chaucer in one volume for general readers
*Skeat published an edition of Chaucer's ''A Treatise on the Astrolabe
''A Treatise on the Astrolabe'' is a medieval instruction manual on the astrolabe by Geoffrey Chaucer. It describes both the form and the proper use of the instrument, and stands out as a prose technical work from a writer better known for poet ...
'', with an expert commentary.
Skeat produced what is still the main edition of Ælfric of Eynsham
Ælfric of Eynsham ( ang, Ælfrīc; la, Alfricus, Elphricus; ) was an English abbot and a student of Æthelwold of Winchester, and a consummate, prolific writer in Old English of hagiography, homilies, biblical commentaries, and other genres ...
's ''Lives of the Saints
A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies might ...
''; the edition includes translations which were largely the work of two women referred to as Mss Gunning and Wilkinson, who were credited in the preface to his edition.
Teaching
According to A. J. Wyatt, Skeat "was not a great teacher ... he left the teaching to those who had learned from him" – i.e. Wyatt himself and Israel Gollancz – "his teaching was episodic. Yet his lectures were eagerly followed by the fit though few; they were always interesting when least utilitarian, when he forgot examinations and syllabuses, and poured forth from the quaint storehouse of his motley memory things new and old."
Skeat's pedagogical works include:
*''Specimens of English from 1394 to 1597'' (1871)
*''Specimens of Early English from 1298 to 1393'' (1872), in conjunction with Richard Morris
*''Principles of English Etymology'' (2 series, 1887 and 1891)
''A Student's Pastime''
(1896), a volume of essays
''The Chaucer Canon''
(1900)
*''A Primer of Classical and English Philology'' (1905)
International relations
Skeat was one of the very few scholars in English studies who had sufficient expertise to compete with the state-employed and tenured colleagues from German universities.
Like Henry Sweet
Henry Sweet (15 September 1845 – 30 April 1912) was an English philologist, phonetician and grammarian.''Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language'', as hosted oencyclopedia.com/ref>
As a philologist, he specialized in the Germanic lang ...
, Skeat regarded Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He wa ...
and other medieval English authors as part of his national heritage and objected to German scholars publishing works on them. At one point, Skeat exclaimed that even though he was "...to some extent disqualified, as being merely a native of London, in which city Chaucer himself was born," he should be able to contribute scholarship on Chaucer without perceived German interference.[''Chaucer. The Minor Poems'', ed. Walter W. Skeat (Oxford, 1888), p vii. See further Richard Utz, ''Chaucer and the Discourse of German Philology'' (Turnhout: Brepols, 2002), pp. 67–69.]
Notes
References
External links
*
*
*
A Moeso-Gothic glossary
Cornell University Library Historical Monographs Collection.
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Skeat, Walter William
1835 births
1912 deaths
People educated at King's College School, London
People from Sydenham, London
English philologists
Etymologists
Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge
Fellows of Christ's College, Cambridge
People educated at Highgate School
Elrington and Bosworth Professors of Anglo-Saxon
Chaucer scholars
Fellows of the British Academy
Toponymists
Anglican clergy from London