The Professor And The Madman

Literally meaning “early-flowering failure of the mental powers,” this 19th century psychiatric diagnosis distinguished a condition in which a person begins to lose touch with reality, and has since been replaced by the term schizophrenia. Minor was diagnosed with dementia praecox in 1918.

Desertion is the criminal abandonment of military duty without permission and with the intention of not returning. A chronic problem during the Civil War, desertion was punishable by death and other corporal punishments like imprisonment, flogging, or branding. Minor was forced to brand a deserter during his military service—a traumatic event that affected his mental health.

The Fenian Brotherhood was an organization of militant Irish nationalists founded in the US before the Civil War. As many as 150,000 Union soldiers were Irish immigrants, who fought partly to train and return home to rid Ireland of the English. Minor was forced to brand one such Union soldier as a punishment for desertion. After the branding, the soldier vowed revenge on Minor carried out by “all Irish patriots.” The experience was so traumatic, it left Minor with a lifelong fear of members of this organization.

Lexicography consists of practical lexicography and theoretical lexicography. Practical lexicography is the craft of creating, writing, and editing dictionaries. Theoretical lexicography is the academic discipline of analyzing and describing dictionaries. Murray and his staff at the scriptorium were practical lexicographers creating the OED, while the Philological Society engaged in theoretical lexicography in determining the scope of the OED.  

Monomania, in 19th century psychiatry, was a form of mental illness that involved a fierce obsession with a single topic. A doctor in the US diagnosed Minor with monomania, classifying him as delusional and a danger to himself and others.

Philology is the study of language in oral and written sources. Murray’s interest in philology and membership in the Philological Society of London led to his association with Frederick Furnivall and eventually to his editorship of the OED.