author
Walter W. (Walter William) Skeat
1835–1912
A pioneering Victorian philologist, he helped make the history of English a serious field of study and brought medieval texts to a much wider readership. He is still especially remembered for his work on Chaucer and for his influential etymological dictionary of English.
3 Audiobooks
English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day
by Walter W. (Walter William) Skeat
A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580
by A. L. (Anthony Lawson) Mayhew, Walter W. (Walter William) Skeat
A glossary of Tudor and Stuart words, especially from the dramatists
by Walter W. (Walter William) Skeat
About the author
Born in London on November 21, 1835, Walter William Skeat studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he later became a fellow. Although he was ordained and served briefly in the church, illness cut that career short, and he turned toward scholarship instead. Over time he became one of Britain's leading philologists and was appointed Elrington and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Cambridge in 1878.
Skeat played a major part in establishing the study of English language and literature at university level in Britain. He edited important medieval works, especially Chaucer, and his research in Old and Middle English helped shape how later generations understood the development of the language. His An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language became one of his best-known achievements.
He died on October 6, 1912. For readers today, Skeat stands out as a patient, energetic scholar whose books opened up the roots of English words and the richness of early English literature.