Stephen Skinner was a Lincoln

Lincoln, Lincolnshire

Lincoln is a cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England.The non-metropolitan district of Lincoln has a population of 85,595; the 2001 census gave the entire area of Lincoln a population of 120,779....

 physician, lexicographer and etymologist.
He graduated at Oxford University in 1646, and went to lived on the continent, graduating at the University of Heidelberg in 1654.

His Etymologicon Linguae Anglicanae of 1671 was the first important etymological dictionary

Etymological dictionary

An etymological dictionary discusses the etymology of the words listed. Often, large dictionaries, such as the OED and Webster's, will contain some etymological information, without aspiring to focus on etymology....

 of the English language

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

. Appearing three years before John Ray

John Ray

John Ray was an English naturalist, sometimes referred to as the father of English natural history. Until 1670, he wrote his name as John Wray. From then on, he used 'Ray', after "having ascertained that such had been the practice of his family before him".He published important works on botany,...

's glossary of English dialects, Skinner's dictionary presents a number of dialectal expressions of his native Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

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• 1671 Etymologicon Linguae Anglicanae: Seu Explicatio Vocum Anglicarum Etymologica Ex Proprils Fontibus Scil. Ex Linguis Duodecim