Adrian Richard West Room (27 September 1933,

Melksham Melksham () is a town on the River Avon in Wiltshire, England, about northeast of Trowbridge and south of Chippenham. At the 2011 census, the Melksham built-up area had a population of 19,357, making it Wiltshire's fifth-largest settlement af ...

– 6 November 2010, Stamford, Lincolnshire)''Contemporary Authors Online'', Gale, 2002; accessed 20 May 2013. was a British toponymist and onomastician, a Fellow of the

Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

and a prolific author of reference works relating primarily to the origins of word and place-names.Contributor biographical information for Brewer's dictionary of modern phrase & fable/compiled by Adrian Room

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The librar ...

, 21 May 2013; retrieved 21 May 2013
Archived here.
/ref> Between 1952 and 1979, Room served in the

Royal Naval Reserve The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original Ro ...

, Special Branch, retiring as a Lieutenant Commander. Before becoming a full-time author, he was employed at

King's College School, Cambridge King's College School is a coeducational independent preparatory school for children aged 4 to 13 in Cambridge, England, situated on West Road off Grange Road, west of the city centre. It was founded to educate the choristers in the King's ...

, where he taught modern languages and was a senior house master. He later, until 1984, worked as a senior lecturer in Russian for the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

Selected publications

*''Place-Names of the World''. London:

Routledge & Kegan Paul Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, a ...

, 1974. *''Place-name changes since 1900: A world gazetteer''. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980. *''Naming Names: Stories of Pseudonyms and Name Changes with a Who's Who''. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981. *''Dictionary of Trade Name Origins''. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982. *''

Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase & Fable ''Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable'', sometimes referred to simply as ''Brewer's'', is a reference work containing definitions and explanations of many famous phrases, allusions, and figures, whether historical or mythical. The "New Edit ...

''. 2000. (Editor) *''Cassell's Foreign Words and Phrases''. London: Cassell & Co., 2000. *''A. to Z. of British Life'' *''Dictionary of Confusable Words'' *''Bloomsbury Dictionary of Place Names in the British Isles'' *''A Dictionary of True Etymologies'' *''Who's Who in Classical Mythology'' *''Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins'' (This edition published after his death) *''Cassell's Dictionary of Word Histories'' *''Dictionary of Irish Place Names'' *''Cassell's Dictionary of First Names'' *''The Guinness Book of Numbers'' *''Room's Dictionary of distinguishables'' *''Ntc's Dictionary of Changes in Meaning'' *''The Fascinating Origins of Everyday Words'' *''Brewer's dictionary of names'' *''Tuttle dictionary of dedications'' *''Room's Dictionary of Differences'' *''Concise dictionary of word origins'' *''Ntc's Dictionary of Word Origins'' *''Dictionary of Confusing Words and Meanings'' *''Dunces, Gourmands & Petticoats'' *''Cassell Dictionary of Proper Names'' *''A Concise Dictionary of Modern Place Names in Great Britain and Ireland'' *''Dictionary of Changes in Meaning'' *''Nicknames of Places: Origins And Meanings of the Alternate And Secondary'' *''Dictionary of Coin Names''. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987. *''African Placenames'' *''Dictionary of Translated Names and Titles'' *''Dictionary of Cryptic Crossword Clues'' *''Dictionary of Dedications'' *''Room's Classical Dictionary'' *''The Street Names of England'' *''The Hutchinson Pocket Dictionary of Confusible Words'' *''Dictionary of Astronomical Names'' *''A dictionary of contrasting pairs'' *''The Naming of Animals'' *''A Dictionary of Art Titles'' *''Guide to British Place Names'' *''Dictionary of World Place-names Derived from English Names'' *''The Pronunciation of Placenames: A Worldwide Dictionary'' *''Dictionary of place-names in the British Isles'' *''A Dictionary of Music Titles'' *''Alternate Names of Places: A Worldwide Dictionary'' *''Ntc's Dictionary of Trade Name Origins'' *''Placenames of France'' *''Bloomsbury Dictionary of Dedications'' *''Literally Entitled'' *''Encyclopedia of corporate names worldwide'' *''Ntc's Classical Dictionary'' *''Cassell's Dictionary of Modern American History'' *''Hutchinson Pocket Dictionary of First Names'' *''The Hutchinson Pocket Dictionary of Place Names'' *''Placenames of Russia and the Former Soviet Union'' *''Room's Dictionary of Distinguishables and Confusibles'' *''An Alphabetical Guide to the Language of Name Studies'' *''Dictionary Of British Place Names''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Room, Adrian 1933 births 2010 deaths Alumni of the University of Oxford Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society People from Melksham Toponymists Royal Naval Reserve personnel