Richard Cleasby (1797–1847) was an English philologist, author with
Guðbrandur Vigfússon 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 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 and
Hans Ferdinand Massmann. 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, 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,
Guðbrandur Vigfússon in 1864 took over the ''Dictionary'', and
George Webbe Dasent 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 Dictionaryby Richard Cleasby and
Gudbrand Vigfusson, published in 1874.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cleasby, Richard
1797 births
1847 deaths
Linguists from the United Kingdom
English philologists