Scottish Dictionary
Dr John Jamieson, the well-known
antiquary and compiler of the Scottish Dictionary, was pastor
of the Anti-
burgher congregation of Forfar from 1780 to 1797, when he
left for Edinburgh. He laboured at Forfar for the
small sum of 50 pounds a year, and before leaving for tlse
metropolis had made himself popular by the publication of
Sermons on the heart,” Reply to Dr Priestly,”
and other works.
While at Forfar he had the good
fortune to become acquainted with George Dempster of Dunnichen,
at whose table he was a frequent guest, and it was there
that the happy idea of the Scottish Dictionary was; first
suggested to him. This origiuated with Grim Thorkelim.
the learned professor of antiquities at Copenhagen, before
meeting with whom Jamieson had looked upon tlse Scottish language
merely as a species of jargon, or at must a corrupt dialect
of the English and Anglo-Saxon. The Professor having spent
a few mouths in Scotland before meeting with Mr Jamieson,
had noted some hundreds of purely Gothic words then in cummon
use in the shires of Forfar and Sutherland. ‘these,
he believed, were unknown to the Anglo-Saxon, though familiar
to
the Icelandic tongue; ansi it was this hint which induced
Jamieson to collect the more singular words and expressinns
of the inhabitants of Angus, and gave rise to his Scottish
Dictionary, one of the most remarkable monuments of industry
and learning of which any country or age can boast.
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