Walter W. (Walter William) Skeat

Born in London on November 21, 1835, Walter William Skeat was an English philologist who studied at King's College, Highgate Grammar School, and Christ's College, Cambridge. He became a fellow of Christ's College in 1860 and later served as the Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Cambridge.

Skeat is especially remembered for his work on the history of English words and for his editions of medieval literature. He produced an influential Etymological Dictionary of the English Language and devoted many years to the study of Geoffrey Chaucer, helping establish more reliable texts for readers and scholars.

His writing combined exact scholarship with a real desire to explain old language clearly. That mix made him an important figure in the study of English, and his books continued to shape philology and medieval studies long after his death in 1912.