Work
In pure philology, Skeat's principal achievement is his Etymological English Dictionary (4 parts, 1879-1882; rev, and enlarged, 1910). While preparing the dictionary he wrote hundreds of short articles on word origins for the London-based journal Notes and Queries. Skeat was also a pioneer of place-name studies.
His other works include:
- The Holy Gospels in Anglo-Saxon, Northumbrian, and Old Mercian Versions (1871)
- Specimens of English from 1394 to 1597 (1871)
- Specimens of Early English from 1298 to 1393 (1872), in conjunction with Richard Morris
- Principles of English Etymology (2 series, 1887 and 1891)
- A Concise Dictionary of Middle English (1888), in conjunction with A. L. Mayhew
- A Student's Pastime (1896), a volume of essays
- The Chaucer Canon (1900)
- A Primer of Classical and English Philology (1905)
- "A Glossary of Tudor and Stuart Words" (1914) with A. L. Mayhew
- The place-names of Cambridgeshire (1901)
- Place-names of Huntingdonshire (1902)
- Place-names of Hertfordshire (1904)
- Place-names of Bedfordshire (1906)
- Place-names of Berkshire (1911)
- Place-names of Suffolk (1913)
Somewhat incidentally in the perspective of his main body of work, Skeat coined the term ghost word and was a leading expert in this treacherous and difficult subject.
Read more about this topic: Walter William Skeat
Famous quotes containing the word work:
“Racism is when you have laws set up, systematically put in a way to keep people from advancing, to stop the advancement of a people. Black people have never had the power to enforce racism, and so this is something that white America is going to have to work out themselves. If they decide they want to stop it, curtail it, or to do the right thing ... then it will be done, but not until then.”
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“On a huge hill,
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Yet strive so, that before age, death’s twilight,
Thy Soul rest, for none can work in that night.
To will, implies delay, therefore now do:
Hard deeds, the body’s pains; hard knowledge too
The mind’s endeavours reach, and mysteries
Are like the Sun, dazzling, yet plain to all eyes.”
—John Donne (1572–1631)
“Never can the innate power of a work be hidden or locked away. A work of art can be forgotten by time; it can be forbidden and rejected but the elemental will always prevail over the ephemeral.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)