05/02/2024
While reading "The Dictionary of Lost Words" by Pip Williams, I decided to learn more about James Murray, the primary editor of the Oxford English Dictionary.
My mind wondered in awe when read the letter of application for a job at the British Museum.
Here is the excerpt from Wikipedia.
Some idea of the depth and range of his linguistic erudition may be gained from a letter of application he wrote to Thomas Watts, Keeper of Printed Books at the British Museum, in which he claimed an 'intimate acquaintance' with Italian, French, Catalan, Spanish, and Latin, and 'to a lesser degree Portuguese, Vaudois, Provençal & various dialects'.
In addition, he was 'tolerably familiar' with Dutch, German, and Danish. His studies of Anglo-Saxon and Mœso-Gothic had been 'much closer', he knew 'a little of the Celtic' and was at the time 'engaged with the Slavonic, having obtained a useful knowledge of the Russian'.
He had 'sufficient knowledge of Hebrew and Syriac to read and cite the Old Testament and Pesh*to' and to a lesser degree he knew Aramaic, Arabic, Coptic, and Phoenician.
However, he did not get the job.
