William Barnes

For other people named William Barnes, see William Barnes (disambiguation).

The Reverend

William Barnes
Rev. William Barnes
Personal details
Born(1801-02-22)22 February 1801
Bagber, Dorset, England
Died7 October 1886(1886-10-07) (aged 85)
Winterborne Came, Dorset, England
BuriedSt Peter's Church, Winterborne Came, Dorset, England
NationalityEnglish
DenominationAnglican
Occupation
  • Poet
  • Anglican priest
  • philologist
Alma materSt John's College, Cambridge

William Barnes (22 February 1801 – 7 October 1886) was an English polymath,[1] writer, poet, philologist,[2] priest, mathematician,[3] engraving artist[4] and inventor.[3] He wrote over 800 poems, some in Dorset dialect, and much other work, including a comprehensive English grammar quoting from more than 70 different languages.[1] A linguistic purist,[5] Barnes strongly advocated against borrowing foreign words into English, and instead supported the use and proliferation of "strong old Anglo-Saxon speech".[6]

  1. ^ a b Phillips, Andrew (1996). The Rebirth of England and the English: The Vision of William Barnes. Anglo-Saxon Books. ISBN 1-898281-17-3.
  2. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica. "William Barnes". Archived from the original on 7 July 2015. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  3. ^ a b Poetry Foundation. "William Barnes". Archived from the original on 4 October 2018. Retrieved 30 July 2020.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference hyams was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ "Johnson: What might have been". The Economist. 28 January 2014. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  6. ^ Barnes, Williams (1878). An Outline of English Speech-Craft. C. Kegan Paul & Co.