Cassidy, Frederic G.

Cassidy, Frederic G. (Gomes) (1907–  ) linguist, lexicographer; born in Kingston, Jamaica. After immigrating to the U.S.A. with his family in 1919, he attended Oberlin College and the University of Michigan (Ph.D. 1938) and began a long teaching career at the University of Wisconsin (1939). An authority on Jamaican English and pidgin and creole languages, he also served as a fieldworker for the Linguistic Atlas of the U.S. survey. In 1962 he was appointed editor of the American Dialect Society's dictionary project, which has resulted in the monumental and ongoing Dictionary of American Regional English (Vol. 1, A–C, 1985; Vol. 2, D–H, 1991). He is also the editor (with R. B. LePage) of Dictionary of Jamaican English (revised 1980).