Background
W. M. Lindsay was born in Pittenweem, Fife, where his father was a Free Church minister.
university professor classical philologist
W. M. Lindsay was born in Pittenweem, Fife, where his father was a Free Church minister.
Balliol College; University of Glasgow. Edinburgh Academy.
He was Professor of Humanity at Street Andrews University. Educated at Edinburgh Academy, Glasgow University (where he was Blackstone Scholar) and Balliol College, Oxford. He was a Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford from 1880 to 1899, when he was appointed as Professor of Humanity (as the professorship in Latin was called) at Street Andrews University.
Lindsay wrote numerous studies, covering a range of topics in Latin from the works of Plautus and Martial to the development of medieval Latin.
Some of his books were translated into French and German. He also wrote articles in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica and notes on the palaeography of the Cathach of Saint Columba.
He pioneered the study of Latin (and Celtic) words. Through prolific scholarship and editing a large number of texts, including Plautus, Terence, Martial in the OCT, and Festus, and Nonius Marcellus in Teubner editions, he influenced almost every area of Latin research.
He received an honorary doctorate (Doctor of Laws) from the University of Glasgow in April 1902.
Lindsay died at Street Andrews after a collision with a motor bike.