Robert Scott (26 January 1811 – 2 December 1887) was a British academic

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

and

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

priest. He is best known for co-authoring the Greek-English Lexicon, commonly known as Liddell and Scott, which is still in use today. Scott was also a professor of Greek at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

for over thirty years before his death on 2 December 1887.

Biography

Scott was born on 26 January 1811 in Bondleigh, Devon, England. He was educated at St Bees School in Cumbria, and Shrewsbury School in Shropshire. He studied classics at

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...

, graduating with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(BA) degree in 1833. Scott was ordained in 1835 and held the college living of Duloe, Cornwall, from 1845 to 1850. He was a

prebendary A prebendary is a member of the Catholic Church, Catholic or Anglicanism , Anglican clergy, a form of canon (priest) , canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral or collegiate church. When attending services, prebendaries sit in part ...

Exeter Cathedral Exeter Cathedral, properly known as the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter in Exeter, is an Anglican cathedral, and the seat of the Bishop of Exeter, in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Exeter, Devon, in South West England. The presen ...

from 1845 to 1866 and rector of South Luffenham, Rutland, from 1850 to 1854 when he was elected Master of

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and aro ...

. He served as

Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture The position of Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture was established at the University of Oxford in 1847. This professorship in the critical interpretation or explanation of biblical texts, a field known as exegesis, was ...

at Oxford from 1861 to 1870 and as the Dean of Rochester from 1870 until his death in 1887. Scott is best known as the co-editor (with his colleague Henry Liddell) of ''

A Greek-English Lexicon A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient ...

'', the standard

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 ...

of the classical

Greek language Greek (, ; , ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic languages, Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece, Cyprus, Italy (in Calabria and Salento), south ...

. According to the 1925 edition of the ''Lexicon'', the project was originally proposed to Scott by the London bookseller and publisher David Alphonso Talboys; it was published by the

Oxford University 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 ...

. In 1872, Scott was taken with

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

's "Jabberwocky" poem published the year before, and he wrote the first known German translation of the piece. He engaged Carroll in an exchange of letters wherein he jocularly claimed his German version, called "Der Jammerwoch", was the original, with Carroll's being the translation.

External links

*
Lexicon text at Perseus project
– includes basic biographical information about Scott from the 1925 edition of the ''Lexicon''
Biographical index to Benjamin Jowett papers
– brief biography of Scott
Balliol College Portraits Collection
– includes a portrait of Scott *

– elucidates Scott's 2/1872 "Jammerwoch" translation

– details Scott's epistolary exchange with Charles Dodgson, a.k.a. Lewis Carroll, and links to the "Jammerwoch" translation 1811 births 1887 deaths English classical scholars English lexicographers Deans of Rochester People educated at St Bees School Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Fellows of Balliol College, Oxford Masters of Balliol College, Oxford Dean Ireland's Professors of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture English philologists Scholars of Greek language Exeter Cathedral Clergy from Exeter 19th-century British lexicographers Writers from Exeter {{England-academic-bio-stub