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Alexander Spiers (1807–1869), was an English
lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries. It is divided into two separate academic disciplines: * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionary, dictionaries. * The ...
.


Life

Spiers, was born at
Gosport Gosport ( ) is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hampshire, England. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 70,131 and the district had a pop ...
in
Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...
in 1807. He studied in England, in Germany, and in Paris and graduated
doctor of philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...
at the
University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...
. Acting under the advice of Andrieux, a well-known poet, he settled in Paris as a professor of English, and found employment at L'École de Commerce, at L'École des Ponts et Chaussées, at L'École des Mines, and at the Lycée Bonaparte. Spiers was nominated an Agrégé de l'Université (roughly, a professorship), an Officier de l'Instruction Publique (officer of the Education Minister), Examinateur à la Sorbonne, and Inspecteur Général de l'Université. He received the cross of the
Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...
from
Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...
. He married in 1853 Victoire Dawes Newman, by whom he left five sons. He died at
Passy Passy () is an area of Paris, France, located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, 16th arrondissement, on the Rive Droite, Right Bank. It is adjacent to Auteuil, Paris, Auteuil to the southwest, and Chaillot to the northeast. It is home to many ...
, near Paris, on 26 Aug. 1869.


English-French dictionary

For fourteen years he devoted himself largely to compiling a new English-French and French-English
dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...
. It appeared in 1846 as ''General English and French Dictionary, newly composed from the English dictionaries of Johnson, Webster, Richardson, &c., and from the French dictionaries of the French Academy, of Laveaux, Boiste'', (London, 1846). It proved superior to anything which had preceded it, and was at once ‘autorisé par le conseil de l'instruction publique’, 3 July 1846. The twenty-ninth edition, in two volumes, appeared in 1884 (remodelled by H. Witcomb, Spiers's successor at the École des Ponts et Chaussées), and it remained for a long time a standard dictionary. Both
Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionism, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist movement of th ...
and
John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the national park, National Parks", was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologi ...
owned copies. An abridgment, under the title of ''Dictionnaire abrégé Anglais-Français et Français-Anglais, abrégé du Dictionnaire Général de M. Spiers'', was brought out in 1851 and supplied to almost every school and lycée in France. In November 1857 he brought an action against Léon Contanseau and his publishers, Longmans & Co., for violating the copyright of his dictionaries in a work entitled ''A Practical Dictionary of the French and English Languages''’ but Vice-chancellor Sir William Page Wood (afterwards Lord Hatherley), in his decision on 25 February 1858, said that, although great use of Spiers's books had been made without due acknowledgement, yet in regard to such publications, which were not entirely original, a charge of piracy could not be sustained. Major General Sir Edward Louis Spears, 1st Baronet (1886–1974) was his grandson, who had changed his name from Spiers to Spears.


Works

Besides his ''Dictionary'', Spiers's chief publications were: :1. ''Manual of Commercial Terms in English and French'', 1846. :2. ''Study of the English Prose Writers, Sacred and Profane'', 1852. :3. ''Treatise on English Versification'', 1852. :4. ''The English Letter-Writer'', 1853. :5. ''Study of English Poetry, a choice collection of the finest pieces of the poets of Great Britain'', 1855. All these works were issued in both English and French editions in London, Paris, and America (New York or Philadelphia). Spiers also printed and edited for French students Sheridan's '' The School for Scandal'' and ''The Essays of F. Bacon, Viscount St. Albans'' (1851).


References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Spiers, Alexander 1807 births 1869 deaths École des Ponts ParisTech alumni English lexicographers 19th-century British lexicographers People from Gosport