Robert Scott (philologist)

Robert Scott (26 January 1811 – 2 December 1887) was a British academic philologist and Church of England priest.

Robert Scott
Born(1811-01-26)January 26, 1811
Bondleigh, United Kingdom
DiedDecember 2, 1887(1887-12-02) (aged 76)
Rochester, United Kingdom
NationalityBritish
OccupationPhilologist
Notable work
A Greek-English Lexicon

Scott was ordained in 1835 and held the college living of Duloe, Cornwall, from 1845 to 1850. He was a prebendary of Exeter Cathedral from 1845 to 1866 and rector of South Luffenham, Rutland, from 1850 to 1854 when he was elected Master of Balliol College, Oxford. He served as Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture at Oxford from 1861 to 1870 and as the Dean of Rochester from 1870 until his death in 1887.

Scott is best known as the co-editor (with his colleague Henry Liddell) of A Greek-English Lexicon, the standard dictionary of the classical Greek language. According to the 1925 edition of the Lexicon, the project was originally proposed to Scott by the London bookseller and publisher David Alphonso Talboys; it was published by the Oxford University Press.

In 1872, Scott was taken with Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" poem published the year before, and he wrote the first known German translation of the piece. He engaged Carroll in an exchange of letters wherein he jocularly claimed his German version, called "Der Jammerwoch," was the original, with Carroll's being the translation.

  • "Scott, Robert (1811-1887)" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  • Lexicon text at Perseus project - includes basic biographical information about Scott from the 1925 edition of the Lexicon
  • Biographical index to Benjamin Jowett papers - brief biography of Scott
  • Balliol College Portraits Collection - includes a portrait of Scott
  • Works by or about Robert Scott at Internet Archive
  • - elucidates Scott's 2/1872 "Jammerwoch" translation
  • - details Scott's epistolary exchange with Charles Dodgson, a.k.a. Lewis Carroll, and links to the "Jammerwoch" translation
Academic offices
Preceded by
Richard Jenkyns		 Master of Balliol College, Oxford
1845–1870		 Succeeded by
Benjamin Jowett


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