JAMIESON, JOHN, DD., author of the Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, was born in Glasgow in 1759. He took orders in the Secession Church, and was for some years a minister in connection with that body in Forfar. About the year 1795 he was translated to Edinburgh, where he spent the latter half of his long life, faithfully fulfilling the duties of his office. From time to time he continued to publish essays on religious and theological subjects. Among these were his Alarm to Great Britain; or an Inquiry into the Causes of the rapid Progress of Infidelity, 1795; Vindication of the Doctrine of Scripture, in reply to Dr Priestly's History of Early Opinions; The Use of Sacred History, and some other works of this class, besides sermons. Far more valuable than any of these, however, were his Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, 1808-9, by far the best work on that subject that has ever appeared; and his Hermes Scythicus, 1814, in which he tried to show the radical affinities of the Greek and Latin languages to the Gothic. Dr Jamieson died at Edinburgh in 1838.