Thomas Hewitt Key
{{short description|19th-century English classicist}}
{{other people|Thomas Key}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
File:Thomas Hewitt Key. Wood engraving by (T. S.), 1875. Wellcome V0003214.jpg
Thomas Hewitt Key, FRS (20 March 1799{{snd}}29 November 1875) was an English classical scholar.{{cite DNB|wstitle=Key, Thomas Hewitt}}
Life
File:Grave of Thomas Hewitt Key in Highgate Cemetery.jpg]]
He was born in London and educated at St John's and Trinity Colleges, Cambridge, and graduated 19th wrangler in 1821.{{acad|id=KY816TH|name=Key, Thomas
|url=http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/slavery/Slaves_University_Virginia.pdf
|title=Slaves at the University of Virginia
|author=Gayle M. Schulman
|date=2005
|website=Latin American Studies
|access-date=17 October 2020
|quote=University professors owned at least a dozen people who had been the property of Thomas Jefferson or his relatives. Thomas Key hired, and then purchased, Sally Cottrell, a slave belonging to Jefferson’s granddaughter Ellen Randolph Coolidge.
|archive-date=17 October 2020
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201017154445/http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/slavery/Slaves_University_Virginia.pdf
|url-status=live
}} After his return to England was appointed in 1828 professor of Latin in the newly founded University of London.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
In 1832 he became joint headmaster of the school founded in connection with that institution (the University College School); in 1842 he resigned the professorship of Latin, and took up that of comparative grammar, together with the undivided headmastership of the school. These two posts he held until his death.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} A few years before his death, he also took the position of secretary to the College of Preceptors in London (later known as the College of Teachers).{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}
Key is best known for his introduction of the crude-form (the uninflected form or stem of words) system, in general use among Sanskrit grammarians, into the teaching of the classical languages. This system was embodied in his Latin Grammar (1846). In Language, its Origin and Development (1874), he upheld the onomatopoeic theory.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
Key was prejudiced against the German Sanskritists, and the etymological portion of his Latin Dictionary, published in 1888, was severely criticized on this account. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and president of the Philological Society, to the Transactions of which he contributed largely.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
Key was the great-grandfather of British authors Rumer Godden and Jon Godden.
He was buried on the western side of Highgate Cemetery.
Bibliography
- Proceedings of the Royal Society, vol. xxiv. (1876)
- Robinson Ellis in the Academy (Dec. 4, 1875)
- J. P. Hicks, T. Hewitt Key (1893), where a full list of his works and contributions is given.
- {{Cite ODNB|id=15407|title=Key, Thomas Hewitt|first=Christopher|last=Stray|author-link=Christopher Stray}}
Notes
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References
Attribution:
- {{EB1911|wstitle=Key, Thomas Hewitt|volume=15|page=767}}
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Category:Burials at Highgate Cemetery
Category:English classical scholars
Category:University of Virginia faculty
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society
Category:Classical scholars of the University of London
Category:Headmasters of University College School
Category:Committee members of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge