Carl Abel

Who was Carl Abel?

Carl Abel was a German comparative philologist from Berlin who wrote Linguistic Essays in 1880. Abel also acted as Ilchester lecturer on comparative lexicography at the University of Oxford and as the Berlin correspondent of the Times and the Standard. His 400-page dictionary of Egyptian-Semitic-Indo-European roots appeared in 1884. His essay "On the antithetical meanings of primal words" was discussed by Sigmund Freud in an identically titled piece, which, in turn, was discussed by Jacques Derrida as a precursor to deconstruction's semantic insights.

He was a son of a succusful banker Gerson Abel. Of Jewish descent, he converted to Christianity.

Abel died in Wiesbaden. His son Curt Abel-Musgrave was a writer and translator. His grandson was noted economist Richard Musgrave.