Iseabail C. Macleod (27 May 1936 – 15 February 2018) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

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 ...

Early life

Iseabail C. Macleod was born in Dalmuir, in

West Dunbartonshire West Dunbartonshire (; , ) is one of the 32 Local government in Scotland, local government council areas of Scotland. The area lies to the north-west of the Glasgow City council area and contains many of Glasgow's commuter towns and villages. ...

. Her parents were native Gaelic speakers. Her father was a policeman. In childhood, she was evacuated with her mother and younger brother Iain to Achiltibuie in the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands (; , ) is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Scottish Lowlands, Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Scots language, Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gae ...

, for safety during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. She completed a master's degree in languages at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

in 1957.

Career

Iseabail Macleod taught languages in schools in Austria and Scotland as a young woman, but soon moved into editorial work. She began working on dictionaries during a job at reference publisher William Collins and Sons in Glasgow, and moved to Edinburgh in 1975, as editor at another reference publisher, W & R Chambers, and then became a freelance editor. She was Editorial Director of the Scottish National Dictionary Association from 1986 to 2002. In that role, she oversaw the technological transitions that brought the ''Scots School Dictionary'' onto

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...

, for classroom use. "There are many things which you can say in Scots which are much more difficult to express in English," she explained of the dictionary's value for young learners. In the 2001 New Year Honours, she was named a member of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

for her work on Scots dictionaries. She was also an Honorary Fellow of the

Association for Scottish Literary Studies The Association for Scottish Literary Studies (ASLS) is a Scottish educational charitable organization, charity, founded in 1970 to promote and support the teaching, study and writing of Scottish literature. Its founding members included the Sco ...

Personal life

Macleod was an active skier, walker and hiker until her last years. She died 15 February 2018, in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, aged 81 years, after a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

Publications

*''Concise English-Scots Dictionary'' (1985) *''Pocket Guide to Scottish Words'' (1986) *''The Scots Thesaurus'' (1990) *''The Pocket Guide to Scottish Words'' (1991) *''The Wordsworth Dictionary of First Names'' (1995) *''Scotland : a linguistic double helix'' (1995) *''Edinburgh Pocket Guide'' (1996) *''The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Scotland'' (2004) *''The Pocket Scots Dictionary'' *''The Pocket Guide to Scottish Place-names'' (2010) *''Scotland in Definition: A History of Scottish Dictionaries'' (2012) *''Scots: Studies in its Literature and Language'' (2013) *''Scoor-oot: A Dictionary of Scots Words and Phrases in Current Use'' (2015)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macleod, Iseabail 1936 births 2018 deaths Members of the Order of the British Empire Scots language Scottish lexicographers Women lexicographers 20th-century British lexicographers 21st-century lexicographers People from Clydebank

External links

Remembrances of Iseabail Macleod
a page of personal tributes and links to obituary notices.
Iseabail's list of Scots language dictionaries
Scots Language Centre.