Works
Jamieson's major work, the Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language appeared in 2 vols. in 1808. A meeting the Danish scholar Grim Thorkelin had suggested this work, and, working with Thomas Ruddiman's glossary to Gavin Douglas's version of the Aeneid, Jamieson completed the work almost alone. He prepared an abridgment in 1818 (reissued in 1846 with a memoir by John Johnstone), and aided by numerous others, he added two supplementary volumes in 1825. The work drew on folklore and provincialisms. The introductory antiquarian dissertation supported a theory on the Pictish influence on the Scots language. A revised edition by John Longmuir and David Donaldson was issued in 1879-1887. These volumes remained the standard reference work for the Scots language until the publication of the Scottish National Dictionary in 1931.
Jamieson's other works included:
- Socinianism Unmasked, 1786.
- A Poem on Slavery, 1789.
- Sermons on the Heart, 2 vols., 1791. Around the same time he authored a pamphlet on the African slave trade entitled, The Sorrows of Slavery.
- Congal and Fenella, a Metrical Tale, 1791.
- Vindication of the Doctrine of Scripture, in reply to Joseph Priestley's History of Early Opinions, 2 vols., 1795.
- A Poem on Eternity, 1798.
- Remarks on Rowland Hill's Journal, 1799.
- The Use of Sacred History, 1802.
- Important Trial in the Court of Conscience, 1806.
- A Treatise on the Ancient Culdees of Iona, 1811, published, through Walter Scott's support, by Ballantyne.
- Hermes Scythicus, 1814, expounding affinities between the Gothic and the classical tongues.
Jamieson wrote on other themes: rhetoric, cremation, and the royal palaces of Scotland, besides publishing occasional sermons. In 1820 he issued edited versions of John Barbour's Bruce and Blind Harry's Wallace. Posthumous was Dissertations on the Reality of the Spirit's Influence (1844).
Jamieson was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, of the American Antiquarian Society and of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
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