Cassidy, Frederic G (Gomes) (1907–2000)

Jamaican-born US linguist and lexicographer who emigrated to the USA in 1919. An authority on Jamaican English and pidgin and creole language, he has been involved in the 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 (1967; revised 1980).

He was born in Kingston, Jamaica. He attended Oberlin College and the University of Michigan (PhD 1938) and began a long teaching career at the University of Wisconsin in 1939. He also served as a fieldworker for the Linguistic Atlas of the US survey.