Thomas Cooper

Thomas Cooper (born c. 1517, Oxford—died April 29, 1594, Winchester, Hampshire, Eng.) was an English bishop and author of a famous dictionary. (Read H.L. Mencken’s 1926 Britannica essay on American English.) Educated at the University of Oxford, Cooper became master of Magdalen College school and afterward practiced as a physician in Oxford. In 1565 appeared the first edition of his most notable work, Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et Britannicae. Three other editions followed in 1573, 1578,...