Education:
A.B. Harvard, 1928; Ph.D. Illinois, 1934.
Dissertation:
"Prolegomena to an Edition of the Pseudo-Servian Commentary on Terence" (Illinois, 1934).
Professional Experience:
Instr. to prof, class. Ohio State, 1934-76; Howald fellow, 1937-8; vis. prof. U. Illinois, 1945-6, 1958, 1965, 1969-70; U. Iowa, 1957; U. Waterloo, 1968; etymological consultant Merriam Webster, 1958-9; Fulbright res. fell. (Rome), 1959-60; ACLS grant, London, 1962.
Publications:
Index Verborum Ciceronis Epistularum, with W. A. Oldfather & H. V. Canter (Urbana, 1938); "The Grammarians and Latin Accent," Studies Oldfather, 1-19; "Ictus, Accent, and Statistics in Latin Dramatic Verse," TAPA 75 (1944) 127-40; Index Verborum in Ciceronis Rhetorica (Urbana, 1964); "Commodian and His Verse," Studies Perry, 272-83; "Seneca and St. Paul," in Wege der Worte. Festschrift far Wolfgang Fleischauer (Cologne, 1978): 119-31; "Satira and Satirocus in Late Latin," ICS 4 (1979) 192-9.
Notes:
Widely known throughout his 42 years of teaching for his interest in lexicography, and particularly in the works of the prose masters Cicero and Seneca, Abbott produced or co-produced indices verborum of consummate scholarship to the rhetorical and epistolary works of Cicero, and left the manuscript of an immense index verborum to the prose works of Seneca. An adept and learned linguist, he was a stimulating and prolific teacher, the mentor of numerous graduate students, and a pioneering developer of such classical humanities courses as "Classical Mythology." A most learned colleague, he was also one of the kindest and most generous.
Sources:
DAS 1982:1; John W. Vaughn, APA Newsletter (Fall 1988).
