WHITNEY, WILLIAM DWIGHT Ameri can philologist of New England stock, was born at Northamp ton, Mass., on Feb. 9, 1827. He graduated at Williams college with highest honours in 1845. Although he was at first interested in natural science, after 1848 he devoted himself with enthusiasm to Sanskrit, at that time a little-explored field of philological labour. After a brief course at Yale with Prof. Edward Elbridge Salisbury, then the only trained Orientalist in the United States, Whitney went to Germany (1850) and studied for three years at Berlin and at TiThingen. In 1854 he was appointed professor of Sanskrit at Yale, and in 1869 professor of comparative philol ogy also. In 1870 he received from the Berlin Academy of Sciences the first Bopp prize for the most important contribu tion to Sanskrit philology during the preceding three years—his edition of the Teiittiriya-Praticdkhya (Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. ix.). He died at New Haven, Conn., on June 7, Whitney edited, with Professor Roth, the Atharva-Veda-San hitct (1855-56) ; published, with a translation and notes, the Atharva-Veda-Praticeikhya (1862) ; made important contribu tions to the great Petersburg lexicon ; issued an index verborum to the published text of the Atharva-Veda (Journal of the Ameri can Oriental Society, 1881); made a translation of the Atharva V eda, books i.–xix., with a critical commentary, which he did not
live to publish (edit. by Lanman, 1905) ; and published a large number of special articles upon various points of Sanskrit phi lology. His most notable achievement in this field, however, is his Sanskrit Grammar (1879). Whitney was editor-in-chief of The Century Dictionary For a bibliography of Whitney's writings and for tributes to him see The Whitney Memorial Meeting edit. by C. R. Lanman (1897) and the Journal of the American Oriental Society (vol. xix. May 1897). See also the Atlantic Monthly (March 1895) for an article by C. R. Lanman.