William Laughton Lorimer, FBA (1885–1967) was a Scottish scholar. Born at Strathmartine on the outskirts of

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

, he was educated at the

High School of Dundee The High School of Dundee is a private, co-educational, day school in Dundee, Scotland, which provides nursery, primary and secondary education to just over one thousand pupils. Its foundation has been dated to 1239, and it is the only private sc ...

Fettes College Fettes College () is a co-educational private boarding and day school in Craigleith, Edinburgh, Scotland, with over two-thirds of its pupils in residence on campus. The school was originally a boarding school for boys only and became co-ed in ...

, and

Trinity College, Oxford Trinity College (full name: The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope (Knight)) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in E ...

. He is best known for the

translation Translation is the communication of the semantics, meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The English la ...

of the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

into Scots. Lorimer spent his professional life as a scholar of

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

at various universities, ending his career as Professor of Greek at the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

. However he also had a lifelong interest in the Scots language and besides the translation, was a longtime contributor to the Scottish National Dictionary. For the last ten years of his life he worked on translating the New Testament from the original Greek sources into Scots. Although he did not finish the final revision of his translation, the work was completed by his son Robin and published posthumously on his behalf in 1983.

External references

''The New Testament in Scots''
Canongate 1885 births 1967 deaths People from Angus, Scotland People educated at the High School of Dundee People educated at Fettes College Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford Academics of the University of St Andrews Scots-language writers British biblical scholars Scottish lexicographers Translators from Greek Translators of the Bible into Scots 20th-century Scottish translators 20th-century British lexicographers Fellows of the British Academy {{bible-translator-stub