Max Vasmer
Max Vasmer (
February 28,
1886—
November 30,
1962) was a
Russian-born
German linguist who studied problems of
etymology of
Indo-European,
Finno-Ugrian and
Turkic languages and worked on history of Slavic, Baltic, Iranian, and Finno-Ugrian peoples in
Eastern Europe.
Vasmer was born of German parents in
St. Petersburg and graduated from the
St. Petersburg University in 1907. Since 1910, he delivered lectures there as a professor. During the
Russian Civil War, he worked in the Universities of
Saratov and
Derpt. In 1921 he settled in
Leipzig but later moved to
Berlin. In 1937-38, he delivered lectures at
Columbia University in
New York City. It was there that he started to work on his magnum opus, the
Etymological dictionary of the Russian language. In 1944, his house in Berlin was bombed, and most of his materials perished. Nevertheless, Vasmer persevered in his work, which was finally published in four volumes by
Heidelberg University in 1950â€"58 as . Vasmer died in
East Berlin on
November 30,
1962.
The
Russian translation of Vasmer's dictionary with extensive commentaries by Oleg N. Trubachev was printed in 1964-73. It is the most authoritative source for Slavic-languages etymology to this day. The Russian version is available on
Sergei Starostin's
Tower of Babel web site.
*
Etymological dictionary*
Query the Russian dictionaries at Sergei Starostin's
Tower of Babel
