Carl Abel

Carl Abel (25 November 1837 – 26 November 1906) was a German comparative philologist from Berlin who wrote Linguistic Essays in 1880. Abel also acted as Ilchester lecturer on comparative lexicography at the University of Oxford and as the Berlin correspondent of the Times and the Standard. His 400-page dictionary of Egyptian-Semitic-Indo-European roots appeared in 1884. His essay "On the antithetical meanings of primal words" (Ueber die Gegensinn der Urwoerte) was discussed by Sigmund Freud in an identically titled piece, which, in turn, was discussed by Jacques Derrida as a precursor to deconstruction's semantic insights.

He was a son of a succusful banker Gerson Abel. Of Jewish descent, he converted to Christianity.^[1]

Abel died in Wiesbaden. His son Curt Abel-Musgrave (1860-?) was a writer and translator. His grandson was noted economist Richard Musgrave.^[2]

Work

• Über den Begriff der Liebe in einigen alten und neuen Sprachen. C. G. Lüderitz’sche Publishing house and bookstore Carl Habel, Berlin 1872.

• Koptische Untersuchungen. Dümmler, Berlin 1876. Reprinted: Sändig Reprint, Niederwalluf near Wiesbaden 1970.

• Slavic and Latin. Ilchester Lectures on comparative lexicography. Oxford University, Oxford 1883 (Digitalized).

• Über den Gegensinn der Urworte. Wilhelm Friedrich, Leipzig 1884 (Digitalized).

• Sprachwissenschaftliche Abhandlungen. Publishing house Wilhelm Friedrich, Leipzig 1885 (Digitalized).

• Einleitung in ein aegyptisch-semitisch-indoeuropaeisches Wurzelwörterbuch. Publishing house Wilhelm Friedrich, Leipzig 1886 (Digitalized). Reprinted: M. Sändig, Wiesbaden 1969.

References

• Smith, Benjamin A. (main editor) (1894). The Century Cyclopedia of Names. New York: The Century Co. p. 1085. 

• Freud, Sigmund (1910). Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, Leonardo da Vinci and Other Works. London. pp. 153–162. 

http://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=se.011.0153a

Notes