author
A. L. (Anthony Lawson) Mayhew
1842–1916
A Victorian scholar of English who helped make medieval language easier to study, he is best remembered for reference works on Old and Middle English. His books opened a path into earlier stages of the language for students, readers, and researchers alike.
1 Audiobook
A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580
by A. L. (Anthony Lawson) Mayhew, Walter W. (Walter William) Skeat
About the author
Anthony Lawson Mayhew (1842–1916), usually published as A. L. Mayhew, was an English lexicographer, scholar of English, and Christian minister. Library and authority records identify him as both a clergyman and a language scholar, and his surviving books show a strong focus on the history of English.
He is best known as the co-author, with Walter W. Skeat, of A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, a long-used guide for readers of medieval texts. He also wrote Synopsis of Old English Phonology and edited early English reference material such as the Promptorium Parvulorum, work that reflects a lifelong interest in how English developed across centuries.
Title pages of his books describe him as being of Wadham College, Oxford, linking his scholarship to the late-19th-century world of historical philology. Although detailed biographical information is not easy to confirm from readily available sources, the record that remains makes clear that Mayhew played a useful part in opening up Old and Middle English for later readers.