Abigail Lindo

Abigail Lindo (3 August 1803 – 28 August 1848) was a British lexicographer. She was the first British Jew to compile a Hebrew-English dictionary. She she is considered to be the only woman to have made a significant contribution to philology in the nineteenth century.

Abigail Lindo
Born3 August 1803
London
Died28 August 1848
London
NationalityUnited Kingdom
Occupationlexicographer
Known forcreating a Hebrew<>English Dictionary

Life
Abigail Lindo's Hebrew dictionary

Lindo was born in London in 1803.[1] She was one of the eighteen children of Sarah (born Mocatta) and David Abarbanel Lindo[2] Her parents were Sephardi Jews and members of leading families. She was related to Benjamin Disraeli and one of her cousins was Sir Moses Montefiore. It was her father who performed Disraeli's circumcision. It was her mother's brother Moses Mocatta who saw to her education. Under his guidance she became a respected scholar of the bible with a wide knowledge of Hebrew.[1]

She came to prominence after she created an English-Hebrew vocabulary for her own use. Encouraged by her uncle, she published her work in 1837.[3] She was the first British Jew to compile and publish a Hebrew-English dictionary.[2] The list was later extended.[1]

Her 1837vocabulary was extended in 1842 and by 1846 she had created a complete ""A Hebrew-English and English-Hebrew Dictionary".[4] Leading lexicographers used her book as well as students of Hebrew.[1] Her work is now regarded as amateur as she had no knowledge of related languages such as Arabic or Aramaic, but she is considered the only woman to have made a significant contribution to philology in the nineteenth century. All of her books identify the author as the third daughter of her father and it his picture which is included in her books.[1]

Lindo died in London in 1848.[1]

References
  1. Miriam Rodrigues-Pereira, ‘Lindo, Abigail (1803–1848)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Sept 2015 accessed 1 April 2017
  2. W. Rubinstein; Michael A. Jolles (27 January 2011). The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History. Palgrave Macmillan UK. p. 597. ISBN 978-0-230-30466-6.
  3. Shimeon Brisman (2000). A History and Guide to Judaic Dictionaries and Concordances. KTAV Publishing House, Inc. p. 73. ISBN 978-0-88125-658-1.
  4. Hebrew Dictionaries, Jewish Encyclodeia, Retrieved 1 April 2017
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