, a learned German
grammarian, and miscellaneous writer, was born Aug. 30,
1734, at Spantekow, in Pomerania; and after studying
some time at Anclam and Closterbergen, finished his education at the university of Halle. In 1759 he was appointed
professor of the academy of Erfurt, which he relinquished
about two years after, and settled at Leipsic, where, in,
1787, he was made librarian to the elector of Dresden;
and here he died of a hemorrhoidal complaint, Sept. 10,
1806, aged 72, aocording to our authority; but the Diet.
Hist, fixes his birth in 1732, which makes him two years
older. Adelung performed for the German language
what the French academy, and that of De la Crusca, have
done for the French and Italian. His “Grammatical and
Critical Dictionary,
” Leipsic, 1774 1786, 5 vols. 4to, a
work of acknowledged merit and vast labour, has been alternately praised and censured by men of learning in Germany; some say that it excels Dr. Johnson’s dictionary of
the English language in its definitions and etymologies,
but falls short of it in the value of his authorities. This
latter defect has been attributed either to the want of good
authors in the language at the time he was preparing his
work, or to his predilection for the writers of Upper Saxony. He considered the dialect of the margraviate of
Misnia as the standard of good German, and rejected every
thing that was contrury to the language of the better
classes of society, and the authors of that district. It was
also his opinion that languages are the work of nations,
and not of individuals, however distinguished; forgetting
that the language of books must be that of men of learning.
Voss and Campe in particular reproached him for the
omissions in his work, and his partiality in the choice of
authorities. In 1793—1801, a new edition appeared in
4 vols. 4to, Leipsic, with additions, but which bore no
proportion to the improvements that had been made in
the language during the interval that elapsed from the
publication of the first.