{{Short description|Scottish philologist (1855–1907)}} {{EngvarB|date=September 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}} {{full citations needed|date=March 2024}} {{Infobox scientist |name = Alexander MacBain |birth_date = {{birth date|1855|7|22}} |birth_place = Balguish, Glenfeshie, Scotland<br/>{{small|(now Badenoch, Inverness-shire, Scotland)}} |death_date = {{death date and age|1907|04|04|1855|07|22|df=y}} |death_place = Stirling, Scotland |field = Celtic studies, linguistics |image = Alexander_Macbain_photo,_from_An_Etymological_Dictionary_of_the_Gaelic_Language.jpg |work_institutions = |alma_mater = |doctoral_advisor = |doctoral_students = |known_for = work in Scottish Gaelic linguistics |influences = |influenced = |prizes = |religion = |footnotes = |signature = }}
'''Alexander MacBain''' (or '''Alexander Macbain'''; 22 July 1855 – 4 April 1907) was a Scottish philologist, best known today for ''An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language'' (1896).
==Early life and education== MacBain was born 22 July 1855 at Balguish, Glenfeshie (modern-day Badenoch, Inverness-shire) and grew up in poverty. His parents, John MacBain and Margaret McIntyre were not recorded as married when his birth was registered 9 August 1855.<ref>1855 MacBain, Alexander Statutory Births 102/00 0028</ref> A native Gaelic speaker, he learned English at Insh General Assembly school, five miles from Kingussie, in Badenoch (1863–1870), whose teacher was Alexander Mackenzie.<ref name=Black>Black, "Macbain, Alexander (1855–1907)." ''ODNB''.</ref> As a teenager, he taught for half a year at the Dunmullie School in Boat of Garten (1870–71), attended Baldow School in Badenoch, was employed by the Ordnance Survey in Scotland and Wales (1871–74) and returned to Baldow School for another term. Having obtained a bursary, MacBain was accepted at Old Aberdeen Grammar School (1874) and subsequently studied at King's College, Aberdeen (1876), where he graduated with an MA in philosophy.<ref name=Black />
==Professional career== In July 1880, MacBain was appointed rector of Raining's school, Inverness, which had just become the secondary school for the entire Highlands. Raining's school became part of the High Public School in 1894-95, for which MacBain continued to work until his death.<ref name=Black /> He was made Legum Doctor at Aberdeen University in 1901 and received his pension in 1905. During the last two decades of his life, MacBain was one of the leading figures in a Gaelic intellectual circle which met in Inverness and Edinburgh.<ref name=Black /> The group included both older members, such as Alexander Nicolson, Alexander Carmichael and Donald Mackinnon, and a younger generation which included Father Allan MacDonald, William J. Watson, George Henderson and Kenneth McLeod.<ref name=Black /> MacBain never married. On 4 April 1907, he died of a cerebral haemorrhage in Stirling. He was buried in his home district Badenoch, in the Rothiemurchus churchyard.<ref name=Black />
==Scholarly output== MacBain was involved in a substantial amount of editorial work. He worked together with Rev John Kennedy to publish the numerous transcripts which the late Rev Dr Alexander Cameron (d. 1888) had made from texts found in manuscripts. The result was the two volumes of ''Reliquiae Celticae'' (1892-94).<ref name=Black /><ref>[https://archive.org/search.php?query=Reliquiae%20Celticae Internet Archive]</ref> He also published an annotated edition of W. F. Skene's ''The Highlanders of Scotland'' (1902) and of the ''History of the Mathesons'' by his former teacher Alexander Mackenzie; contributed to an edition of Ewan MacEachen's ''Gaelic Dictionary''; and was editor for ''Celtic Magazine'' (1886-1888) and ''Highland Monthly'' (1889–1902).<ref name=Black />
Many individual papers were published in the ''Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness'' and Transactions of the Inverness Field Club.<ref name=Black /> His first book was ''Celtic Mythology and Religion'', which appeared in 1885 (reprinted 1917). The work for which he is best known today is the philological milestone ''An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language'' (1896).<ref name=Black /> MacBain published a critical edition of the Book of Deer and contributed entries on the Picts in ''Chambers's Encyclopaedia'', articles for magazines and newspapers and reviews for the ''Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness'' (1880–1903). He was responsible for two popular textbooks, ''Gaelic Reader'' and, together with John Whyte,<ref>John Whyte was a journalist, a translator of Gaelic, and a librarian. He was born in Easdale in Argyll and was the brother of Henry Whyte (1852-1913). He wrote under the pen-names 'MacMharcuis' and 'IBO'. He died in 1913. http://www.dasg.ac.uk/corpus/textmeta.php?text=89&uT=y</ref> ''How to Learn Gaelic''.<ref name=Black />
MacBain was highly critical of Skene's position of the Pictish language as Q-Celtic in character.<ref>See for example his 1902 foreword to Skene's Highlanders of Scotland</ref> It has been suggested that the degree of animosity evident in MacBain's treatment of Skene may have been for personal reasons and that he was biased against him.<ref>{{citation | last = Sellar | first = W.D.H. | year = 2001 | journal = Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland | volume = 131| pages = 3–21 | title = William Forbes Skene (1809–92): historian of Celtic Scotland| doi = 10.9750/PSAS.131.3.21 }}</ref>
;Selected publications *1883–84. ''Celtic Mythology and Religion''. in ''Celtic Magazine''; published in book form in Inverness, 1885. Available through the Internet Archive [https://archive.org/details/celticmythologya00macbuoft here] and [https://archive.org/details/celticmythology00macbgoog here]. *1885. ''The "Druid" Circles'' in ''Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness'', vol. XI; published in book form by Eneas Mackay, Inverness, 1914. *1885. Ed. and tr. "The Book of Deer." in ''Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness''; vol. XI, pp. 137–66. [https://archive.org/details/transactions11gael Available from the Internet Archive] *1893. ''Celtic Burial'', in ''Transactions of the Inverness Scientific Society and Field Club'', vol. III, Inverness. *1895. ''[https://archive.org/details/personalnamesan00macbgoog Personal Names and Surnames of Inverness]''. Inverness. *1896, 1911. ''[https://archive.org/details/etymologicaldict00macbuoft Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language]''. Inverness, 1911 (revised edition, originally published in 1896; reprinted in 1982 by Gairm, Glasgow). [http://www.ceantar.org/Dicts/MB2/index.html Transcribed online at Ceantar.org]. *1917. ''Celtic Mythology and Religion'', a collection of ''Celtic Mythology and Religion'', ''The "Druid" Circles'', and ''Celtic Burial''. Published in book form by Eneas Mackay, Inverness, 1917. Reprinted by The Lost Library, Glastonbury, no date.
==References== {{reflist}}
===Secondary sources=== {{wikisource|works=or}} *Black, Ronald. "[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/34670 Macbain, Alexander (1855–1907)]." ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford University Press, 2004. Accessed: 2 November 2009.
==External links== * {{Gutenberg author | id=31692| name=Alexander Macbain}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Alexander Macbain}}
{{Scottish Gaelic linguists}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:MacBain, Alexander}} Category:Scottish philologists Category:Celtic studies scholars Category:1855 births Category:1907 deaths Category:Alumni of the University of Aberdeen