Angus Fraser Cameron (11 February 1941 – 27 May 1983) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

linguist 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 ...

Life

Cameron was born in

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

on 11 February 1941 and educated at

Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its ...

Senior High School (winning the Governor General's award in 1958) and

Mount Allison University Mount Allison University (also Mount A or MtA) is a Canadian primarily undergraduate liberal arts university located in Sackville, New Brunswick, founded in 1839. Like other liberal arts colleges in North America, Mount Allison does not parti ...

before winning a

Rhodes Scholarship 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' ...

Jesus College, Oxford Jesus College (in full: Jesus College in the University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship St ...

. He was then a lecturer at Mount Allison University before completing a post-graduate degree at Oxford in 1968 entitled "Old English nouns of colour: a semantic study". This was the starting point for his later lexicographical work. In 1968, he was appointed as a lecturer in the Department of English and Centre for Medieval Studies by the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

, becoming a professor in 1977 and being elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...

in 1982. His daughter is writer Claire Cameron. He died of cancer in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

on 27 May 1983 at the age of 42. Cameron was Ph.D. supervisor for

Antonette diPaolo Healey Antonette diPaolo Healey is a philologist and a scholar of Old English literature and language. She has published on lexicography, glossography, and history of the English language. diPaolo Healey edited seven releases of '' The Dictionary of Ol ...

, who would go on to continue his work on the '' Dictionary of Old English''.

''Dictionary of Old English''

Cameron began his lexicographical work in 1970 with the '' Dictionary of Old English'', supported by the

Canada Council The Canada Council for the Arts (french: Conseil des arts du Canada), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It acts as the federal government's principal i ...

. Work on this project was still ongoing at the time of his death, leading to the university becoming a centre of the study of Old English. He was one of the first to see the advantages of using computers for lexicographical work. Declining health in later life prevented him taking up the appointment as Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cameron, Angus 1941 births 1983 deaths Mount Allison University alumni Mount Allison University faculty Alumni of Jesus College, Oxford University of Toronto faculty Canadian lexicographers Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Canadian Rhodes Scholars 20th-century lexicographers Deaths from cancer in Ontario