Henry Bradley (philologist)

Henry Bradley (born December 3, 1845 in Nottinghamshire , † May 23, 1923 in Oxford ) was a British Anglist (philologist) and lexicographer. In 1933 he was with William A. Craigie (1867-1957) editor of the first supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and before that the fourth editor of the OED.

Bradley was the son of a farmer. From 1855 to 1859 he went to Chesterfield Grammar School, after which the family moved to Sheffield . For twenty years (1863 to 1883) he was employed by a cutlery company in Sheffield, responsible for correspondence. In addition, he studied languages ​​and wrote works on literary history and literary criticism. In 1884 he made this a living and moved to London. In addition to economic reasons, the health of his wife also played a role.

In 1884 he attracted attention for his thorough criticism of the first volume of the OED by James Murray , which revealed in-depth philological knowledge of many languages. It appeared in the London literary magazine Academy . It was seen as a fair, balanced and well-founded criticism and Murray consulted him on behalf of the OED. In 1886 Bradley was hired as an employee (he initially worked on the letter B) and from 1888 onwards he was the second editor of the OED alongside Murray, who was initially reluctant to do so (however, Secretary L. Gell wanted to accelerate the project). In the OED he edited the letters E to G, L, M, S to Sh, St and parts of W. In 1896 he moved to Oxford in a building belonging to the Oxford UP, which published the OED. At the same time he became a member of Exeter College there. In contrast to the sometimes heated Murray, he was characterized by a calm temperament and he was humble. Bradley worked as an editor independently of Murray, first in London in the British Museum , then from 1896 in the Old Ashmolean Museum in Oxford . When Murray died in 1915, he became the editor-in-chief and remained that way until his death.

He became a Fellow of Magdalen College in Oxford (from 1916), an honorary doctorate in Oxford (Honorary MA 1896, D. Litt. 1914 with Murray) and Heidelberg and had been a Fellow of the British Academy since 1907 . He was President of the Philological Society in London and co-founder of the Society for Pure English (SPE).

In 1904 he published a history of the English language, which he wanted should also be understandable for laypeople.

In 1872 he married Eleanor Kate Hides. He is buried in St. Cross Churchyard in Oxford.

Bradley is portrayed by Ioan Gruffudd in the 2019 film The Professor and the Madman .

Fonts

• The Making of English, New York: Macmillan, 1904, Archives
• The story of the Goths, from the earliest times to the end of the Gothic dominion in Spain, 1887, London: T. Fisher Unwin Archive
• On the relations between spoken and written language, with special reference to English, London: British Academy 1913, Archive
• Collected papers of Henry Bradley, 1928

Web links

• Biography at the OED
• Find a grave