Pickering, John

Pickering, John

(?1776–1846) linguist, philologist, attorney; born in Salem, Mass. (son of Timothy Pickering). He graduated from Harvard (1796) and spent several years in Europe with the United States Diplomatic Corps. After returning to Masssachusetts, he practiced law and served in the state senate. He wrote many books and articles on language, including the first collection of American word usages (1816) and a Greek-English dictionary (1st edition, 1826). He was also a leading authority on the languages of North American Indians.