Background
Steinar Schjøtt was born to priest and politician Ole Hersted Schjøtt (1805-1848) and his wife Anna Jacobine, née Olrog, in Porsgrund where his father was stationed as vicar.
historian lexicographer linguist philologist translator
Steinar Schjøtt was born to priest and politician Ole Hersted Schjøtt (1805-1848) and his wife Anna Jacobine, née Olrog, in Porsgrund where his father was stationed as vicar.
Steinar Schjøtt enrolled at the University of Christiania in 1862 and graduated as candidate.mag. in 1870. He used eight languages in academics: Old Norse, Danish, German, English, French, Latin, Greek and of course Norwegian. Within the Norwegian language, he preferred the Landsmål form, hence he Norwegianized his name from the Dano-Norwegian Stener to Steinar.
He was not appointed to a university position, but worked as an upper secondary school teacher.
He was a teacher at Heltbergs studentfabrikk, then in Levanger and Kristiansand. From 1874-1893 he was a teacher in Fredrikshald, then in Skien.
He helped translating the Heimskringla to Landsmål, and published books in Norwegian and global history. He then published two large dictionaries in 1908 and 1914.