Michael Louis Samuels (14 September 1920 – 24 November 2010) was a British Ashkenazi historical linguist, responsible for the Historical Thesaurus of English.

Life

Samuels was born 14 September 1920 in London, the son of

Harry Samuels Harry Samuels, OBE (1893 – 1976) was a British barrister and political activist. Born in Liverpool, Samuels was educated at the University of Oxford. While there, he joined the Fabian Society, and became increasingly active in the organisati ...

, and Céline Aronowitz: his sister was actress Miriam Karlin (1925–2011).Guardian Education 15 December 2010
Michael Samuels obituary His was an orthodox Jewish upbringing, but he later said he was an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

.''The Jewish Chronicle'' 20 August 2009
"Where to find ‘Jew Tongo’? In biggest-ever thesaurus" He studied at St Paul's school, and

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

, initially to study classics, but graduating with first-class honours in English in 1947, after wartime service with the Air Ministry. In 1950 he married Hilary, and they had a daughter Vivien. His academic career began with a research fellowship at the University of Birmingham followed by a lectureship at Edinburgh University. He became Professor of English Language at Glasgow University in 1959, staying until his retirement in 1990.University of Glasgow News Archive 28 June 2006
Distinguished figures from the worlds of arts, conservation and science are to be honoured by the University of Glasgow After this academic retirement he continued to work, especially on the ''Historical Thesaurus of English'', a project he had begun in 1965. In 1979 Professor Christian Kay joined the project, working with Samuels until his retirement in 1989 and continuing to work on it until publication of its first edition. ^{/sup>

The finished work was eventually published in October 2009. He died 24 November 2010 and was survived by his wife, daughter and sister.

Works

*Samuels, M. L., (1972) ''Linguistic Evolution: with special reference to English'' Cambridge University Press,
*McIntosh, Angus, Samuels, M.L. and Benskin, Michael, (1986)'' A Linguistic Atlas of Late Medieval English'' Aberdeen: University Press

References

Herald Scotland 1 Dec 2010
Prof Michael Samuels; Academic (obituary)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Samuels, Michael
1920 births
2010 deaths
Academics of the University of Glasgow
Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
English atheists
English Jews
British Ashkenazi Jews
English philologists
Jewish atheists
People educated at St Paul's School, London}