Michael Samuels

Michael Louis Samuels (14 September 1920 – 24 November 2010) His was an orthodox Jewish upbringing, but he later said he was an atheist.

He studied at St Paul's school, and Balliol College, Oxford, initially to study classics, but graduating with first-class honours in English in 1947, after wartime service with the Air Ministry.

After this academic retirement he continued to work, especially on the Historical Thesaurus of English, a project he had begun in 1965. In 1979 Professor Christian Kay joined the project, working with Samuels until his retirement in 1989 and continuing to work on it until publication of its first edition.

The finished work was eventually published in October 2009. He died 24 November 2010 and was survived by his wife, daughter and sister.

Works Samuels, M. L., (1972) Linguistic Evolution: with special reference to English Cambridge University Press, McIntosh, Angus, Samuels, M.L. and Benskin, Michael, (1986) A Linguistic Atlas of Late Medieval English Aberdeen: University Press