Alexander Macbain
| Alexander MacBain | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | 22 July 1855 Balguish |
| Died | April 4, 1907 (aged 51) Stirling |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Fields | linguistics, Celtic studies |
| Known for | work in Scottish Gaelic linguistics |
Alexander Macbain (or Alexander MacBain) (22 July 1855 – 4 April 1907) was a Scottish philologist, best known today for An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language (1896).
Macbain was born 22 July 1855 at Balguish, Glenfeshie (Badenoch, Inverness-shire) and grew up in poverty. His parents, John MacBain and Margaret McIntyre were not recorded as married when his birth was registered 9 August 1855. A native Gaelic speaker, he learned English at the Irish General Assembly school in Badenoch (1863–1870), whose teacher was Alexander Mackenzie. As a teenager, he taught for half a year at the Dunmullie School in Boat of Garten (1870–71), attended Baldow School in Badenoch, was employed by the Ordnance Survey in Scotland and Wales (1871–74) and returned to Baldow School for another term. Having obtained a bursary, Macbain was accepted at Old Aberdeen Grammar School (1874) and subsequently studied at King's College, Aberdeen (1876), where he graduated with an MA in philosophy.
In July 1880, Macbain was appointed rector of Raining's school, Inverness, which had just become the secondary school for the entire highlands. Raining's school became part of the High Public School in 1894–95, for which Macbain continued to work until his death. He was made Legum Doctor at Aberdeen University in 1901 and received his pension in 1905. During the last two decades of his life, Macbain was one of the leading figures in a Gaelic intellectual circle which met in Inverness and Edinburgh. The group included both older members, such as Alexander Nicolson, Alexander Carmichael and Donald Mackinnon, and a younger generation which included Father Allan McDonald, William J. Watson, George Henderson and Kenneth McLeod. Macbain never married. On 4 April 1907, he died of a cerebral haemorrhage in Stirling. He was buried in his home district Badenoch, in the Rothiemurchus churchyard.
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