Richard Cleasby (1797–1847) was an English philologist, author with

Guðbrandur Vigfússon Guðbrandur Vigfússon, known in English as Gudbrand Vigfusson, (13 March 1827 – 31 January 1889Jón þorkelsson, "Nekrolog över Guðbrandur Vigfússon" in ''Arkiv för nordisk filologi'', Sjätte bandet (ny följd: andra bandet), Lund, 18 ...

of the first Icelandic-English dictionary.

Life

He was born on 30 November 1797, the eldest son of Stephen Cleasby, and the brother of Anthony Cleasby. He was educated at a private school, and for some years assisted his father in his business, but in 1824 gave up trade and went to the continent to study philosophy and literature. After spending four years principally in Italy and Germany, he returned for a winter's term at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

, went again to the continent, and eventually settled in 1830 at

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

to study philosophy under

Friedrich Schelling Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (; 27 January 1775 – 20 August 1854), later (after 1812) von Schelling, was a German philosopher. Standard histories of philosophy make him the midpoint in the development of German idealism, situating him be ...

and

Old German Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...

under

Johann Andreas Schmeller Johann Andreas Schmeller (6 August 1785 in Tirschenreuth – 27 September 1852 in Munich) was a German philologist who initially studied the Bavarian dialect. From 1828 until his death he taught in the University of Munich. He is considered the ...

and

Hans Ferdinand Massmann Hans Ferdinand Massmann (; 15 August 1797 – 3 August 1874) was a German philologist, known for his studies in Old German language and literature, and for his work introducing gymnastics into schools in Prussia. Biography Massmann was born in ...

. He made excursions into many districts of Germany, gaining a knowledge of

German dialects German dialects are the various traditional local varieties of the German language. Though varied by region, those of the southern half of Germany beneath the Benrath line are dominated by the geographical spread of the High German consonant s ...

. A liver complaint often sent him to

Carlsbad Carlsbad may refer to: Geographical locations * Carlsbad, California, San Diego County, United States ** Carlsbad Santa Fe Depot, NRHP ID No. 93001016 * Carlsbad, New Mexico, United States ** Carlsbad Caverns National Park ** Carlsbad Irriga ...

, and he occasionally revisited England. His first visit to Denmark and Sweden was in May 1834, and he became attracted by Scandinavian subjects. In 1839 he collated the ''

Codex Argenteus The (Latin for "Silver Book/Codex") is a 6th century, 6th-century illuminated manuscript, originally containing Gospel#Canonical gospels, part of the Gothic Bible, 4th-century translation of the Christian Bible into the Gothic language. Trad ...

'' at

Uppsala Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Loc ...

, and in January 1840 he formed the plan of his ''Icelandic-English Dictionary'', starting work by April. He worked while travelling between England, German spas, and

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

, where he had amanuenses. In the summer of 1847 his health grew worse, and on 6 October he died of an attack of

typhoid fever Typhoid fever, also known simply as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella enterica'' serotype Typhi bacteria, also called ''Salmonella'' Typhi. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often th ...

. The poetical vocabulary, prepared under his direction by Sveinbjörn Egilsson, was ready for publication in 1846. In the following year Cleasby had set up in type specimens of the prose dictionary. Arrangements were made for the completion of the work at Copenhagen. After some false starts and the temporary loss of some of Cleasby's papers,

in 1864 took over the ''Dictionary'', and

George Webbe Dasent Sir George Webbe Dasent, D. C. L. (1817–1896) was a British lawyer, translator of folk tales and contributor to ''The Times''. Life Dasent was born 22 May 1817 at St. Vincent, British West Indies, the son of the attorney general, John Roche D ...

lobbied the

Clarendon Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

for backing. The work was eventually completed in 1873, and published with a preface by

Henry Liddell Henry George Liddell (; 6 February 1811– 18 January 1898) was Dean (college), dean (1855–1891) of Christ Church, Oxford, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University (1870–1874), headmaster (1846–1855) of Westminster School (where a house is n ...

, and an introduction and memoir of Cleasby by Dasent.

References

External links

An Icelandic-English Dictionary
by Richard Cleasby and

Gudbrand Vigfusson Gudbrand is a given name. Notable people with the given name include: * Gudbrand Bøhn (1839–1906), Norwegian violinist, concertmaster, and music teacher * Gudbrand Granum (1893–1984), Norwegian politician * Gudbrand Gregersen de Saág (1824– ...

, published in 1874. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cleasby, Richard 1797 births 1847 deaths Linguists from the United Kingdom English philologists